PROMOTIONAL ITEMS- CALENDAR

I thought a calendar would be a good promotional item as it is a useful thing to have, and it's something that someone would look at everyday. It is also a chance to do a lot of illustrations, and show off my design skills.

At first I thought it would be interesting to have a board with little corner holders on them that you could slot each month card into, and all the other months are kept in a little pouch, but it was a bit of a over complicated method just for a calendar, and unless you were shown how to put it together it might put people off using it:

George suggested that it would be simpler and more practical to just have cards which you clipped together with a small bulldog clip to hang up on a pin/wall. I decided to go ahead with this idea in mind, as it meant that I could purely focus on designing the images to go on the calendar.

I then had an idea that I could perforate the calendar below the image, so you could tear off the date. Then, at the end of the year you can clip together a little book of images (bad diagram below:)

Now that I wanted the images to form a book at the end as well as being a calendar, I thought it would be good to create a small simple narrative that runs through each month. At first I wanted to make the story about a giant and a snake- inspired by this image that I made and want to use on my CV:

Then I decided that I wanted to draw more animals, and I thought about having an animal each month and then they all meet up at the end (in December). I also toyed with the idea of having the zodiac animals, but then I didn't want it to seem like a specific Chinese new year calendar or something.

I finally decided to start with small animals that get bigger, to look a bit like a food chain- which would mislead people into thinking that the animal is getting eaten each time but at the end they are all together at a party. I added an envelope that would be the invitation to the party and is a constant object that goes along the story.

After I got a very rough story down and drew ideas of how I wanted the animals to look, I drew the story board again but with a more solid idea- I wanted to create this pattern of the animals interacting and then the animal with the envelope. I did this by repeating similar composition on the page- and I also want to use just two colours so the whole thing is cohesive. Originally I was going to screen print the calendar- but I wanted to use textures and tones within the illustration to reflect the animals I have drawn in my portfolio, and by using risograph I can get a wider range of tones and textures.

I worked straight on Photoshop drawing with the mouse, first drawing the basic shapes of the animals. I then went over everything and added textures and also made more brushes from painted things that I scanned in

After I had finished each illustration for the calendar I downloaded a free calendar for 2018 and added each month to the bottom of the calendar. Something I enjoyed exploring in Olio and will continue to experiment with is altering scale in a surreal way- and I like how the animals go up in scale and the envelope goes down in scale. 

To print on the risograph I arranged the a6 images on 1 a3 page and 1 a4 page 

I realised that the letter was a constant throughout the calendar but it isn't in the last panel- which might be confusing. I decided to add an open letter at the bottom of the image which I think ties everything together.

 I went to wilkos to get the little bulldog clips that would hold the calendars together: I went for a coppery colour and silver, because I would like to print the calendar in blue/black and pink/black, and I think the silver would look good with blue and the copper with the pink.

I was really happy with the outcome of the risograph, the only thing I'm disappointed with is that the weakest image is the first one! Which I think would put people off picking it up.

Using a perforator, I scored lines under the image so the dates can be torn off and the illustrations kept as a little book.

I'm also glad that I decided to go for two different colour ways, I also put different colour bulldog clips on each calendar to go with the blue or pink.

The only thing to do was add my name and details to the calendar. I didn't want to have my email on every illustration because I think it clogs up the image and puts people off. Also because I didn't want to put the pages back through the riso to print anything on the back- I decided to print stickers that could be stuck to the pack of the calendar, using an illustration from the calendar and the font from my business cards and mini book- to create cohesion and solidify my 'brand':

For presentation, I have put the calendars in cellophane bags, which helps make them look more professional.

Overall I am pleased with the outcome of the calendars, and I'm proud that I produced all new illustrations for them instead of reusing old work. I think they will be practical, which is why I wanted to make calendars in the first place, and the illustrations are quirky and interesting which reflects my portfolio. I also think the style of the drawings and the narrative can work across different audiences, I would be happy sending this to indie publishers/agents as well as children's book publishers.