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Creative process for February 2004 design
Back to Sparks
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Stage
I
We love this quote by Maryanne Radmacher-Hershey and have picked
it up and put it back down again many times over the last year
and a half. Our initial concept was full of flourish and activity,
yet every time we tried to add an "I" to the scene,
nothing seemed to fit. We kept returning to the sketch, waiting
for conceptual inspiration. |
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Stage II
Enter The
Little Prince, one of the greatest children's
books of all time and a personal favorite. This quote, which
in a literal sense speaks of travel's ability to broaden the
mind and spirit, refers metaphorically to the shift in perception
that is at the heart of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's
story. Since we had a moon and a planet, all that was left
was to add our childhood friend.
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Final
Once the concept is there, a certain amount of finessing is
necessary to bring it all together! We changed the moon to flat
white in order to contrast it with the line drawings, made our
planet a bit bigger and our prince a bit smaller, and created
an "opening" in the line of the planet that allows
our prince passage. The shift in scale overall creates a wonderful
sense of quiet space, like those still summer or winter nights
when the moon is full and you feel transported by the glories
of nature. The quote itself reappears, but smaller, tucked in
the lower corner, and all lowercase. The monoline typeface (Sassoon
Primary) relates to the line drawings, and its block shape
completes the "dynamic diagonal" from upper left to
bottom right of the composition. The combination of all these
elements, plus the gesture of the prince's arm and the swept-back
scarf, creates a sense that some transition is happening, though
whether our prince will fly away or simply drop his arm to his
side is up to the mind and heart of the viewer. |
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