“Would you like another adventure?”
So began my second project for artisan perfumery 4160 Tuesdays, illustrating a collaboration between perfumer Sarah McCartney and author Joanne Harris for the prequel to Chocolat.
My briefing was like visiting an alchemist, sitting in Sarah’s workshop smelling the ingredients that would go into the perfume. I got to read the book pre-publication. I sketched visiting cats in my garden, rooted out pictures from my visit to Marseille, went on a lichen hunt and conjured up memories of my mother growing Marmande tomatoes, their heady scent meeting me as I opened the door to the bit of barn workshop fashioned into a greenhouse.
I’ve created pattern illustration consistent with the 4160 Tuesdays brand, with Sarah’s vintage scarves and with the book.
We’ve brought in my design experience and production knowledge for an array of formats, each with its own considerations: printing on the front and back of a glass bottle to make a complete scene, printing on a tall, slender box with a lot of ingredients to list, adaptation for a postcard and garment printing.
And there are two pieces of hand lettering, the name and an ampersand, in the Latin ‘et’ form that’s one of its two possible roots (I learned this researching for my Nerd Nite London talk on ampersands), as a nod to the French setting of the book.
Find out more about the perfume here.
