The Concept
Circumnavigating serial killer vibes
On one of my internet trawls to find quotes I can commandeer, this little gem sat there and screamed out for a bit of editing. I had a few ideas for adding the ‘unless . . .’ which involved circumnavigating some fairly dark, Dexter-esq, serial killer vibes like ‘unless you run out of space to hide the bodies’. Now, I fully understand that my niche sense of humour can be a soupçon off putting for the less neurodivergent crowd (my mum), so plumped for something a bit more PG.
The Process
When playing with layouts, always opt for ‘less faff’…
I had A LOT of fun with this quote, it almost designed itself once I’d written the quote (which doesn’t happen too often). I sat at the ol’ table and set the layout on laptop-mode in InDesign. Then transferred to tablet-mode to ‘hand draw’ it in Fresco (I’ve added the inverted commas because I used my Surface Pen, not a pencil, so pipe down ya puritans) . Sometimes I do the lettering completely freehand, but I fancied the text being quite rigid for this one.
FONTS | Abril Fatface Regular, Brother 1816
I played with a couple of layouts, but decided the right hand one was going to be a bit too much of a faff, and more importantly I wasn’t sure it would be readable when it was finished… which would have defeated the object.
… even if I will faff later anyway
As Fresco‘s time lapse function decided that I was, in fact, faffing anyway, it only recorded the work for the first three words, but it’s nice to see that before the glorious dusty pink hues I was having a shocking pink moment. My aim with these quotes is to first appear beautiful and calming, then reveal the funny. So I knocked it back a bit. I tend to pick my colours on the fly with the colour ways developing and changing over the course of the composition.
We get a bit shocking pink for a minute there
Chunks . . . but not like The Goonies
The lettering came first for this one, then:
- the ribbon
- top left sprig
- bottom right sprig
When it comes to my signature botanical illustrations, they start with an outline followed by filling and swapping out colours to add more depth (aka more faff). Being able to work in layers means I can move a chunk of the composition behind something I’ve already done (aka less faff = faff neutral).
SUPER COOL SLIDER THINGY
between not finished and finished like genuine real world magic
The Finished Article
Credit where credit’s due
Any design I create is very rarely a solo venture, so credit where credit’s due, my partner Phil suggested I make the word ‘blue’ actually blue, ‘so it draws the eye more’. Touché sir, consider your back well and truely patted.
What’s Next?
I’ll be getting this little beauty printed on postcards and greetings cards with a rose gold foil really soon.
Love an Anti-Inspirational Quote?
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I’m Libby, a graphic designer, artist, crack-up merchant, and illustrator. I weigh in at an impressive 5′ 5” with 18 years industry experience, and can be stowed in most overhead lockers for easy transit.
If you’re looking for a creative graphic designer to make your book cover, publicity, branding or passion-project shine, and have a giggle with along the way, I’d love to hear from you.
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