Story Boards

Thursday 17^th February 2011

Making story boards is probably my favourite part of designing for a new book or series of projects – or for, say, a one-off commission.  When I did my first one, I literally had no clue about where to even start.  All my creative ideas closed down because I was panicing about the process of communicating my designs and my vision for the book, to a prospective publisher.  But then I decided to just treat it like a giant canvas, and place all my projects into seasonal and colour-themed groups, with my inspirational sources at the centre of each sheet.  My goodness, it was a HUGE story board – four of them in fact.  I think my publisher was astonished and probably thought she’d got a nutter on her hands.  However, it was accepted and furthermore, I loved the process.  I still do, and now I’m about to have the chance to story board all over again for book number four!  My first book was all about felting your hand knitting and creating new textural impacts using Shibori fabric techniques.  My second book was my homage to Kidsilk Haze and my third a further love-letter to that yarn – plus lace.  Book number four wil be a little bit different, I’m loving the emerging theme, and the chance to knit with an even wider range of Rowan yarns.  But it will still be ‘me-knitting’:  not too big, not too much, not too hard;  pretty, fun to make (mostly, because yes, I know yards of Shimmer or the picot casting -off are aquired tastes!), and above all, do-able, while making you feel and look rather clever, actually. Here are some snaps of old story boards:

The projects were placed in seasonal groups:

I would then stick these collages onto even bigger sheets and write notes, plus swatches and photos of any complete pilot items, all round the sides.  Like these for the Kidsilk Haze volumes:

So, I’m story boarding again, happy days.

4 responses to “Story Boards”

1. mooncalf says:

   17th February 2011 at 10:36 am

   Those are beautful. I love reading about how you design. It is really interesting to see the process behind the books.

   Reply
2. Sue D says:

   23rd February 2011 at 8:14 pm

   You are clearly very creative artistic. I agree with mooncalf, I like to see the different stages of the book process.

   Reply
3. Sue D says:

   23rd February 2011 at 8:15 pm

   I meant creative AND artistic!

   Reply
4. Donna says:

   26th February 2011 at 4:49 pm

   me too- it’s aways fascinating to see the processes from ideas to finished product. thanks for sharing.

   Reply