Ponderings after attending the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
In case you’ve come directly here from a Google search or link or something, you should know that I was only really popping into the Bologna Children’s Book Fair for a few hours, rather than full-on attending it (another time, for sure), because I’m (at the time of writing, of course) in the middle of a 5-week interrailing adventure around (some of) western Europe.
Random ponderings and notes
I overheard an illustrator managing to pitch to an art director on the bus! I can’t imagine having the nerve to that. Then again, a few years ago I hadn’t imagined being able to email art directors with my work and now it’s pretty much a built-in habit.
The fair itself felt quite overwhelming, as book fairs tend to for me (been to my fair share over the decades – in fact, I met my husband at the Frankfurt Book Fair, which I always think sounds cool!). Illustration, unsurprisingly, has a really big place at this one, though, whereas I think that’s definitely less so at London and Frankfurt and Paris (unless I’m not looking in the right places).
The illustration wall (s – there were a bunch of them) was immense. So much amazing art on there and such a wide variety of styles. There were also many displays up of illustrations that had won various prizes (I can’t keep track of all the different prizes) or in specific sections.
I couldn’t work out, in the moment, whether to feel very inspired or completely daunted by the huge amount of truly stunning illustration and the number of illustrators there looking to get work. With hindsight I am choosing inspiration, because that is the more positive and constructive one (not from any logic).
I went and said hi to someone I’m working with currently, which was nice. And, as my husband reminded me when I chatted to him later that day, I was one of the illustrators with work on display and being pitched at Bologna, which is pretty cool.
I took quite a few photos of the names of publishers that ‘called out to me’. I’m hoping they were calling out because they felt like somewhere my style would fit, and not just because I loved the work. Though surely it could, or even should, be both?
I did not go with the plan to pitch at all. I think my portfolio currently is still probably skewed toward illustration for adults, rather than children, and I would want to have more children-focused pieces in there if I did. I did load up my portfolio on the iPad, just in case, but it didn’t come up and I definitely didn’t go stand in any portfolio review queues, though I really love how many there were around and I would totally plan to do so if I were to (WHEN I) go ‘properly’ (aka not while in the early stages of a 5-week interrailing trip round Europe!).
I did sit and listen to a couple of talks. One by the art directors from the Folio Society (actually quite fortuitous to come across that, as they are adult-focused rather than children- and they run a very good, and free-to-enter competition). That was interesting. Another was by an illustrator (Loes Riphagen) about her process on a book, which was great (love to find our more about others’ processes).
The atmosphere was buzzing for sure. I think, if I go next year or the year after, I would:
- book accommodation early and in Bologna.
- aim to book AirBnB (or similar) so I could cook and wind down well
- maybe consider sharing a flat for the week with one or two other Illustrators, so we could go round together a bit
- put together a children-focused portfolio that really shows characterisation, scenes, movement, versatility (and probably some other things!)
- get some postcards printed (or maybe something more exciting than postcards?)
- have something ready to go up on the illustrators’ wall
- go to portfolio review open calls
- buy some books (couldn’t do that this time, as have a 30-litre backpack to take me through the five weeks).
I would love to hear others’ experiences of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, either this year or in previous (or future) years. If you’ve written a post about your experience, drop a link in the comments! And let me know if you’re planning to go next year.
The Landlady – Patternmash project
I joined up for Hannah’s Patternmash project at the start of January. Hannah provides monthly briefs to create patterns/collections for. Not hugely unusual, I suppose, but… her briefs are really well-thought out and researched and in-depth and she provides supportive moodboards, colour palettes and more. I think it’s the depth and the reaching beyond the comfort zone that has appealed to me. I love Bootcamp (must write a post about the Bootcamp January project, too) and MATS and the assignments that come from there, but the Patternmash ones have a subtle difference and make me think on a deeper more artistic level that I wasn’t actually sure I could (I am so very much all about the ‘making pretty patterns’ and usually really dislike having describe anything on a deeper level than ‘I saw pretty flowers. I drew pretty flowers. I made them into a bright and fun pattern.’)
Anyway, I’m all gushy about it after January. Who knows if I’ll be equally gushy at the end of February, though I’m already excited about another ‘outside my comfort zone’ brief, so hopefully.
January’s brief was to create a pattern (or collection – I think the idea is usually to create a whole collection if you can) inspired by Roald Dahl’s short story ‘The Landlady’, a macabre short story about a landlady of a B&B that has remarkably few guests, and a penchant for stuffed animals. Hannah provided the story, a moodboard and a colour palette and I have to admit being initially completely thrown. How do you make a pattern from a story? Surely you make an illustration? But I drew some teacups and I drew some carnations (the landlady liked her tea rituals and there was an evocative description of yellow carnations). And then forgot about it for a while, as my design time was being eaten up by money work and then I went off on some other tangents and then I did the Bootcamp assignment and then I realised the the deadline was only a couple of days away, had nothing else I absolutely had to do during my design time, so thought I needed to give it a go.
I’m sooooo glad I did.
I had definitive ideas for patterns as soon as I sat and looked at my sketches and I made them over two nights. My favourite is absolutely the damask, though I’m pleased with the teacups, too.
Landlady Damask
This pattern takes the carnations from the story, placing them in a traditional wallpaper repeat (a bit of a shout out to William Morris) and then adds in a little macabre twist.
Nightshade Teacups
This one is a little more subtle and picks up the teacups from the story, and intertwines them with tangled stems of deadly nightshade (the decorations on the teacups are also deadly nightshade).
Hannah shared my damask pattern on Twitter and someone (Sam Meech, @videosmithery) said they’d like to see a book cover treatment with it, so I had a go – and ended up making three (Paperback A format). Now, there’s an application for pattern design I hadn’t been thinking about much – any of my publishing friends and colleagues fancy some funky patterned covers for your textbooks?
If you like the sound of the briefs, check out Patternmash. There’s a free version you can sign up to if you’re not sure, but I highly recommend the full paid version and look forward to showing you next month’s.