One day before hand-in, all ready and bound...

My recent project is a 'fill-in-activity' book for babies (originally my little niece-to-be-born), their parents and whole families. The book has got a subtle storyline and once you fill in all the details you've got a lovely narrative to read to your baby when he or she gets a bit older. When they are big enough, they can have their own go as there is plenty of space to collage photos, draw pictures and write your own stories. The whole family can (and should!) engage.
I have also added little pop-up surprises, guessing games etc. to make the book slightly more interactive and fun. Hope the little one likes it.

   

Off to the Clouds!

See you in Bologna!

Traditional 'Before-Bologna' Update:)

The frequency of adding new articles on my blog appears to be rather descending... However each year around the end of March despite all the 'getting-everything-ready-for-Bologna hassle, I find a bit of time to upload at least some bits and pieces to make my blog look alive in case some publisher finds his way to it...
And this is the case!
Having said that, I only have few hours before my plane leaves, I am not gonna exaggerate - one or two project must do...

This 'cat' bellow is my recent sequential one. In Czech it's called 'Prd na dobrou noc' (= goodnight fart). In Eglish, it doesn't really make any sense. However in Czech, the word 'prd' (fart) has got a second meaning = 'nothing'... Therefore if your naughty child after a tiring day asks you 'What's today's goodnight story?', you can just say 'prd' and get away with this very short tale... And if your child complains about the tale being too short - just point out the mouse's very long tale and switch the lights off ;)!

Based on this character I also entered our course' competition and designed a poster for our Bologna stand. And believe it or not, it was amongst the three winning ones! :)


Time to read!

Degree Show Coming Up

As the final Degree Show is coming up very soon I wanted to post a little taster for those who might be interested in coming. 
Besides others I am gonna have my final major project on display - a calendar called:

'Where does the time fly?'

Each month of the calendar reveals its secret answer and to make the whole year special I have added some charming post-it notes to 'fly' your messages to whoever you want to and make their days special too...
The calendar will be for sale at the show and since it is a 'fill in' calendar, you can buy/use it any year you like and perhaps (if you fill it in with a pencil) you can even reuse it ;)


Cover:

January:

March:

July

September:

November:

PAPELOTE

Well this was one of those things you I always wanted to do. Design a wrapping paper that would actually make it all the way to production, shop, customer and finally to someone who gets the gift. 
For those who don't know, Papelote (www.papelote.cz) is one of the best stationary shops you can find in Prague and the whole Czech Republic. Since they are in love with paper as much as I am, and their way of working and how they set up this unique, simple but playful brand is admirable, I joined their team for a short practice placement in the summer. I had a great time, learned a lot and I was very much pleased when Katka (the founder) got back to me in autumn and I could give something back by creating a wrapping paper for them.

Hopefully it sells well and hopefully it will enhance the excitement of getting a present. After all I still think that unwrapping is the best part of it all!

Macmillan Competition Brief

Out of tens, maybe hundreds competition briefs we had on offer I went straight for Macmillan one. How many time's throughout the year do I have opportunity to do nothing but create a picturebook? And who knows me well knows that there is not many things I like as much as I like creating picturebooks :)

I used a character I created some time ago... but this time in a new story in new settings. 

Fairground monkey.

Nobrow: Escalation

Sam from Nobrow came to give us a little talk about Nobrow, how it started, how it grows...and also what we have to do to complete our narrative brief:
Create 8-page book on the theme of escalation.
And here it comes (well some of it). Unseen Spectacle. A story about circus clown and a greedy audience wanting to see more and more...until it's just too much!

middle spread

front cover

back cover