Created for the 2018 Penguin Student Design Competition, my goal was to get away from the ubiquitous pig imagery typically seen on covers for this title. Instead, my final submission to the competition features a brightly colored and glossy glue bottle which alludes to a grim plot point in the book while also feeling slick, plasticky, and mass-produced, as the farm becomes an assembly line of production based on the pigs whims and to the detriment of the other animals.

I created additional cover designs to explore the range of themes in the story. The first uses ransom note style lettering connoting how the animals’ revolution is stolen from them and held hostage to the corrupt pigs’ power struggle. The second features a hand-stamped cover and a deliberately chaotic layout to connote the animals’ fevered chanting of “Four legs good, two legs bad!” and how this unthinking fanaticism plays a part in the eventual crumbling of their revolution.

For this self-directed project, I designed a seasonal gift box for VIPs of the Royal Opera House, in London. As this was to promote a specific theatre season, I focused on the Japanese heritage of Kabuki for the overall box and collateral design.

I created a modified traditional Japanese trick box where the lid is attached to the box, but due to a trick hinge is able to be opened in opposite directions, revealing different compartments depending on which direction the lid is opened.

The box is covered in two kinds of traditional Japanese mulberry paper, which is very strong and ensures the longevity of the box, and is wrapped with a band of rice paper to keep the pack closed and create branding for the ROH. This band is intended and designed to be removed so the recipient can continue to use the box as decorative storage.

One side contains an A3 size booklet featuring information about the ROH and a brief overview of the history and significant aspects of Kabuki theatre. For a cohesive look, I created the booklet from the same mulberry paper (cover) and rice paper (interior pages) as the box. I bound this with traditional Japanese stab binding, using orange hemp to echo the orange sash of the actor on the cover.

The other side of the box contains a letter of welcome and appreciation presented as a scroll. I handcrafted a replica of an Edo-era wooden Kabuki theatre ticket as a collectible item which also enables the VIP to receive a complimentary glass of wine/sake (or similar) at the ROH wine bar when presented throughout the theatre season. I also handcrafted a traditional Japanese kanzashi flower lapel pin/brooch, exclusive to this VIP pack, and created with the traditional black/green/persimmon colors of a Kabuki theatre curtain.

The size and materials of this box give it a wonderfully textured and exclusive feel, and the trick hinge is a bit of surprising fun!

For this self-guided project, I wanted to update the cover for A Midsummer Night’s Dream to appeal to a modern audience.

This classic has seen so many printings, but the covers tend to show either traditional oil paintings depicting Tatiana and Bottom, or a range of more modern illustration styles depicting...Tatiana and Bottom. Most covers either feel ‘classic’, heavy, and dull; or very bright, airy, and full of cute pixies. I wanted to go a different direction and show that while this is a Shakespearean comedy, it’s quite dark and creepy. I deliberately avoided showing Tatiana and Bottom and instead focused on a dark and mischievous Puck and the magic love elixir that causes so much havoc in the story. I took my design inspiration from modern urban fantasy book design and created a moody, magical, and slightly sinister cover that I feel is more fitting to a play about two young urbanite couples who run afoul of fairy schemes and get waylaid by their magical infighting.

The vintage typewriter typeface is gritty and disjointed, and the spine features a full moon image I created from creamed coffee (yes, coffee).

My undying appreciation goes to my dear friend Rebecca, who cheerfully spent hours tromping through the woods in leggings and a tunic, posing barefoot with the trees and holding a magical bottle of glitter and LED lights. Oh, the baffled looks we received from the hikers! Thanks, Rebecca!

This project for the National Media Museum’s Celebration of 1960s Spaghetti Western Films includes full branding for the exhibit (name, logos, signage, public posters, etc.), full creation of the exhibit space, and creation of collateral items for the museum gift shop.

My goal was to capture the rich, over-saturated, hand-painted style of the 1960s film posters. I created the exhibit title “10,000 Bullets” and a bullet logo to indicate the action and violence of these films. The logo typography echoes the hand-painted or papercraft lettering of the original film posters.

This set of three posters is intended to be a narrative, with the main poster showing the characters in a tense moment which erupts into a gun fight; while the single posters are meant to shock and be placed in various locations around the city, like a running gunfight.

My exhibit design continues the hand-painted, over-saturated look of the posters. I also wanted to create a fully immersive exhibit, so the space is created to give museum visitors the impression that they have just stepped into the square of an Old West town, lined with shop fronts.

Visitors enter on either side of the jail, which is a wall with bars that they can stand behind for a photo op of themselves in an Old West jail. The exits are at the back corners through a stockade gate or under the water tower. A ‘boardwalk’ fronts the buildings, lifting them higher and providing a 30cm ledge between the front of the boardwalk and the front of the buildings where the museum can feature information, small props, and photographs from the films.

All my love to my dad and brother who made this photo shoot possible, and OBVIOUSLY missed their true calling as gunslingers! This was an fun afternoon that probably lasted a bit longer than it needed to, since my dad and I made it our day’s goal to make my brother break character and laugh as often as possible. Thanks too to my husband, who you can just see a bit as he holds my father’s hat up so I could use the magic of Photoshop to make it look like my brother had just fired the shot to blow the had off of my father’s head. If you look closely at the poster, you can even see the little scorched ‘bullet hole’!

I created the town with many hours of digital editing and painting photographs I took of a local tourist attraction which looks (roughly) like a frontier town. Great bones to start with, but I needed to remove not only the original building signs/business names, but all modern elements like newspaper machines, credit card signs, beverage refrigerators, electric lights, and all the typical signage found in a tourist area. It was quite a challenge to get the shadows looking reasonable.

For the gift shop, I created designs for an enameled tin coffee cup sporting the branding for the exhibit and a sentiment I’m sure coffee addicts (such as myself) around the world share. I also created a sturdy burlap reusable tote with the exhibit branding.

The final images are a before and after comparison of the original candy shop and the Old West saloon it became, and the before and after photos of how I created the water tower from a rooftop water tank and a scaffold/tower holding a pterodactyl. I have to admit, I was sorely disappointed to not include the pterodactyl in the final painted town. Gunslingers and dinosaurs, anyone?

For this cover redesign I wanted to capture the zany, rollicking adventure of this sci-fi comedy.

To try and capture the giddy energy of a crazy, drive-all-night road trip, I took photos while riding in a car at night to capture the blurry, light-streaked road.

To further the boldly colored look and overall feel, I incorporated neon sign style typography for the title on the front cover, and a stylized highway sign to hold the text on the back cover. I kept the colors but toned down the typeface on the spine for better legibility on the bookshelf.

I created my self-branding and promo pack to try and capture and communicate the quirkiness and humor I strive to bring to my work.

My logo is my very stylized initials created to be reminiscent of late 1800s to early 1900s illustrated books, with the strong fairy tale theme of flying through the sky on a magical umbrella.

As I care deeply for environmental issues, I wanted to create a gift-like useful item, not a cardboard pack that would be thrown away as a nuisance. Accordingly, I created the box itself from sturdy book board and hinge tape, then bound in fabric to be aesthetically pleasing and completely usable by the recipient. The long hexagon shape is meant to feel like a posh umbrella case. Though this is about 20” long, it conveniently does not take up much space on a desk due to its slim profile and the hinged lid that allows it to open like a chest rather than at the end like a mailing tube, and the size makes it very useful for reuse for desk necessities or other small items around the house.

Collateral items tucked inside include my introduction letter/CV, a branded umbrella, a ‘magic key’ shaped flash drive containing my digital portfolio, and branded wooden token with a note offering my help if the recipient needs a designer but hasn’t gotten “around to it”. Well…now they have ‘a round tuit’ of their very own! (This item also conveniently doubles as fair warning regarding my sense of humor.)

Did you know orange is considered the color of happiness? What better color to have along with you on a dark, drizzly day!

For this double-page title spread for a world folklore book I selected a personal favorite, the Russian witch, Baba Yaga.

This is pen & ink with watercolor is a modernization of illustration styles from the late 1800s to early 1900s, including an illustrated border for both pages and a themed illustrated capital for the introductory paragraph.