PDSA Christmas Cards

Samples of my christmas card designs for PDSA have finally arrived in the Paper Dove Studio. It is also nice to find my illustrations on the cover of the 2014 Christmas catalogue.

All profits made from the sale of these cards will help to support PDSA in serving sick and injured pets... so get ordering!!

Learning how to Letterpress

With Verity and ready for acton in the print room.

Jen putting the next plate in place for print.

Over the past few weeks I have started joining Jen and Verity in the letterpress room learning how to letterpress on a beautiful Heidelberg machine.

Letterpress has become the go-to printing technique for greeting cards, business cards and wedding invitations. Invented in the 15th Century, it was the most reliable and widely used method of printing. This printing method originally involved manually arranging words and images before pressing them into high-quality paper.

Although this is still common practice for many designers, at Paper Dove, we create card designs digitally and have metal plates made from them to then print onto beautiful paper. 

It is great to design for letterpress, but it is even better now that I am learning to print for it as well.

A year on - ECA Degree Show 2014

Reunited with some of my ECA studio pals.  

Cate James drawing 'What dinosaurs get up to' in Hannah Botma's exhibition space.

It is so scary to think that it has been a whole year since I finished my Master of Fine Art degree.

So much has happened in the space of a year: I have had one book published with Walker Books, my illustration for the Seven Stories 'Over the Hills and Far Away' book is set to be published in October of this year, I have recently finished my first full picture book with Frances Lincoln (tbp in January 2015) and I am working for Paper Dove greeting card company in the North East of England.

I recently went back to Edinburgh for opening night of the Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show 2014. It was amazing to be back in the best city in world and to catch up with all of my lovely friends.

Well done to all of those who have just finished their studies... with a special mention to my illustration friends Hannah Botma and Jessica Kettle. It was a fabulous show!

I'm excited to see where we all are this time next year!

Illustration Friday - Voyage

Here is a little post for this week's Illustration Friday topic 'Voyage'. I think everyone knows the story of Christmas, and that these two characters have a long voyage ahead of them!

These are two card designs that are part of a four pack that I created for Paper Dove last week. Creating designs for kids packs are my absolute favourite and it is quite nice that Christmas follows me throughout the year! 

I hope you enjoy these little fellas.

Sara Ogilvie Workshop at Paper Dove

Sara showing the group her prints and explaining about her working process.

Paper Dove designer, Caroline Gordon getting stuck in with mono-printing. 

My experimental mono-prints based on Sara's beautiful Russian Dolls.

Sketchbook development from Sara's new book 'Meet the Parents'.

Last week at Paper Dove was full of fun and excitement with a visit from my favourite illustrator, Sara Ogilvie (the illustrator of 'Dog don't do Ballet'). 

I first met Sara at the 'Take Five Illustrators' exhibition opening in 2012 at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh, whilst studying for my masters degree at Edinburgh College of Art. Since then I have been fortunate to work with her at other talks and workshops at both Seven Stories and Edinburgh College of Art. This time I'm lucky enough to work with her at my new workplace.

During the morning session, Sara gave an inspiring talk about us where she finds inspiration, her creative process, her approaches to different creative projects and creating books for children.

After lunch we had a messy session in the print room, experimenting with the potential of mono-printing and screen-printing. As a group we came up with some interesting characters based on some observational drawings of Sara's collection of old toys.

I am looking forward to arranging her next visit soon!

Paper Dove Studio

It has been a tough start to the year with completing my first picture book for Frances Lincoln Publishers. Whilst it has been a wonderful experience working with such amazing people, I must say that I am happy to finally be catching up on some sleep! 

It has obviously been a while since I updated my blog, so I thought I would start by sharing some of the recent artwork that the design team have been creating in the Paper Dove studio. Here are a few visuals of sketches and original artwork made in a variety of different media.

Geek Squad range for Cherry Moon

Four of the cards from my Geek Squad range

Jen changing the ink on the letterpress machine

Verity in production 

Here is a sneaky peak at 'Geek Squad', which is my very first range for Cherry Moon.

These brightly coloured designs showcase familiar retro objects and games that we've all loved. They have been beautifully hand printed by my friends Verity and Jen using one of our amazing letterpress machines. This old printing method is perfect for this range, adding to the retro feel.

This NEW range of twelve cards, is set and ready to go to the Spring Fair at the NEC in Birmingham next month.

Illustration Friday - Spirit (of Christmas)

Here is a Christmas card design that I finished this week for one of our briefs at Paper Dove Company. I thought this was a perfect image to contribute to this week's Illustration Friday post with my representation of the 'Spirit of Christmas'.

I hope you enjoy this illustration and have a magical Christmas and New Year!

Holly x

New Job at Paper Dove

At the beginning of September I started a new job as a designer at Paper Dove Company in Northumberland. This amazing company creates innovative, tailored designs exclusively for charities in the UK and Europe.

The artwork that we have to produce is so varied, from cute 'children's booky' animals to painterly religious scenes. Charities who I have been creating work for include RNLI, Tearfund, PDSA, Leukaemia, RSPB and Sue Ryder.

Unfortunately the designs I create this year won't be for sale until next year as we have to work so far in advance, but watch this space!