I just realized I never followed up on my statement to show you all the evolution process of my
Life Verse Design style & how on earth it has transformed from vintage sepia tone, classic photography & design into bold, contemporary subway style typography.
I hope you enjoy the behind the scenes of a designer's mind!
In 2007 I began Life Verse Design by creating a body of work that is available in either sepia tone or black & white photography. I did this for a few reasons:
1. I wanted my work to be timeless & withstand long term home design. You know, a piece that would look gorgeous & not out-dated or trendy.
2. I wanted to create a body of work that had continuity that color photography could not offer. With my varied subject matter of the images {from baby feet to mountains}, I wanted to make sure that any image would still remain a part of the body of work & there would be an immediate "look & feel" to my line.
I first created full bleed images in which the text would overlay & interact with the imagery & elegant embellishments or scroll work. The photo was purposely meant to be seen first, and the text secondary as I wanted the viewer to come close, be intimate with the words & really meditate on them. I also used layers of textures & scratches to again emphasize the vintage & timeless feel of the art.
I then started insetting the image into a vintage photo box surrounded by the beautiful scrolls & the text became more separate & simplified. A meditative & elegant feel remained, as simplicity reined.
In 2008 I designed the above book,
Red, White & Blue for Tyndale House Publishers. Since I LOVE textures, I decided to roughen up this political thriller with my scratches & yet soften the bold san serif typography with the embellishments since it was a book about a female presidential candidate.
At the same time, my big kids kept telling me,
"Mom, you need more color in your art! Why is everything brown?!"
So, I decided to do just that: combining the inset vintage photo frame edge, I could separate image from text & choose any palette I desired. I created an entire series of contemporary pieces for Demdaco, as I had presented my concept to them & they asked me to create a color line of art cards {
which were never produced}. You will see my key elements of scratches & embellishments remain to continue the vintage tie. But now, after working on several contemporary book covers & using LOTS of bold, san serif fonts, I thought this was pretty fun to switch the emphasis from viewing the photo first & text second, to viewing the text first & photo second.
Then came the problem of wanting to create several really powerful quotes that I did not see "marry" an image. {You see, my imagery always has a purpose to the quote: it is never simply eye candy or a pretty picture...} Plus, I wanted to start reaching a different audience: men for one thing + customers who have a more modern style feel. I continued to play with the bold typography & let the quote speak for itself. I could not get rid of the textures though, as I am a texture girl at heart. So, I worked with my oil pastel backgrounds & created an all new color palette that the customer could choose themselves to fit their home decore needs. I dropped the photography all together, and yet kept the swirls as it makes the type move & the scratches which still give it a timeless quality to it. So, this line is my
"Words to Move You" : subway art with an elegant twist.
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed a peek into my brain.
OH & you can see in this post the 3 versions of
The Serenity Prayer I offer... how different & yet how similar they are. Which one would
you prefer?
Grace & Peace,
Julie
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