Crochet Taxidermy
Taking a Visual Journey with Meg Hunt
When is a crochet book more than a how-to manual? When it takes the reader on a visual journey through forests, jungles, oceans and zoos. You can learn how utilizing fun and playful graphics from illustrator Meg Hunt, was a creative way to bring the projects to life, and keep the reader engaged.
The Challenge
The Solution
The Result
Storey wanted a book that was playful and full of excitement for the projects outlined. The design of the openers was to reflect the wallpaper colors and represent all the creatures in each region.
Developing a visual direction that let each creature show up, but also balance the image.
Meg’s bold shapes, colors and textures nod to the past, making the work feel exciting and fresh, full of details to catch and delight the eye.
An interview with Meg Hunt
Could you walk us through the creation of the Crochet Taxidermy project? What were the client’s goals?
Storey wanted a book that was playful and full of excitement for the projects within; art director Alethea Morrison had decided to group each project by a theme (such as undersea or farm) and photographed each crocheted creature with poppy wallpapers as backgrounds. Based on the aesthetic direction, Alethea asked me to design a series of openers using my limited palette style that reflected the wallpaper colors and represented all the creatures in each region.
Beyond raw illustrative and conceptual skills, what skills do you exercise to make each project run smoothly?
I try to ask as many questions as I can before I get into the meat of the project, keep on top of responses with the client and before I get into the final end results of the project make sure that the client understands the direction I'm heading. In this case, that meant very clear sketches and sample palettes. Clear communication is key to keep us both on the same page and happy about the result!
What were some of the thoughts that fueled the direction of the art?
I knew that this art would have a couple of challenges. One, each section had a different number of creatures, and the scale varied considerably-- for example the undersea illustration had the least number of creatures, but it was dominated by the octopus. On the other side of things, the woodland scene had a considerable number of creatures, and quite a few that were very small in scale. This required me to spend a long time developing a visual direction that let each creature show up, but also balance the image.
The other creative challenge was the limited color aspect-- something that I love to work with, but don't often get to work with such complex imagery. Since each creature would be based on this palette and not its own natural coloring, it became really important to think about value and depth within the piece and how the colors I chose for the whole image could be broken down and overlapped to get a beautiful end result.
