I have got a commission work to make 1 birthday card for my colleague’s friend. What I knew about it or what requirements I received was:
- The receiver is a wise man with lots of life and academic experience
- The card needs to be something related to encyclopaedia
- The rest is up to me (total freedom)
The first thing I have in mind is the medieval manuscript and the old books that we see at 2nd hand bookshops.
So I started to do some visual research about these kind of books and trying to find images that are free copyright.
I found something interest during the research, that is, gold is widely used in old books. Gold appeared almost everywhere in the book, in the cover, inner pages, calligraphy, margins of the book, illustrations, ornaments, drawings, etc.
So I downloaded an image of an encyclopaedia, set the right print size using Adobe Illustrator, type in the copy (title) and used a 220GSM paper to print on a laserjet printer.
The printout and the colour came out great and I used a Chinese brush (any brush is suitable, Chinese brush is just my preference for this commission) and Winsor and Newton Gold ink to paint over the title to make it like a real manuscript book cover.
I hand painted letter by letter carefully not to give the impression that the card were printed using home/office printer and also to give the impression of something handmade.
This is the finished product, try it yourself!