Secret Project number twenty-two

Dear Internet,

I'd like to introduce you to Charlotte. She is a fellow design grad student at CCA, and we're lucky to have her, because she happens to a have creative AND scientific brain, which means she pretty much always has a good answer to any question. ANY QUESTION, trust me. 

This is Secret Project number twenty-two.

Howdy Internet. I’m one of Kate’s CCA classmates. You can find out more about me here.

I recently reached a milestone birthday and, appropriately, my friends are also growing up; two gals from my college days just had babies: Harper + Annie. Babies and I always get along pretty well in general, and I’m feeling especially fuzzy about these first little ones, and want to give presents to match. While I love little shoes and tiny sweaters that are frightfully adorable and expensive, these are gifts with finite utility. I wanted to send each little girl something that would be relevant to her as she grows up.

When I was born, my mother’s friend Michael painted something just for me. It was a watercolor of a girl with a gingham dress and brown pigtail braids rollerskating toward the viewer and worked into a series of vertical lines was the message “Welcome to the world, Charlotte.” I always liked having it around even after I outgrew most other childhood accoutrements.

In this spirit, and since I’m in frickin’ art school, I designed a graphic print. I started by picking a color palette and thinking about fun things I’d like to stare at on my walls. In addition to the watercolor, I had this weird clown Barnum & Bailey poster in my childhood bedroom which I loved.

While I wanted to retain this celebratory spirit, I didn’t want too much creepiness. Clowns can be scary. So I leapt to balloons. Recap: Balloons, YES! Clowns, NO.

Here are how the final prints turned out:

I did Harper’s print first, as my basic template, arranging and re-arranging balloons, adding different textures for more depth. A few different iterations ensued:

but the end product isn’t too different from the first draft, just more refined. As you can see in the typeface choices, I tried to retain the circus feel with a bit of elegance. I also wanted to incorporate the phrase, “Welcome to the world,” the gals’ birthdates, and something personal related to their respective names.

So for each baby, I chose a unique quote. Li’l Harper’s print has a passage from “To Kill a Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee, and li’l Annie’s has a quote from Annie Oakley — and boy, did it take me long to find the words that struck the right balance of optimism, pathos and humor. Thanks for the resources, interwebs!

I then went to a local print shop and ordered one full-size print of each. I wanted to send a truly finished, framed present, but since neither new mom is local to SF (Oklahoma and Boston), and this ended up being incredibly expensive to ship due to size. Note to self: next time, price all aspects before choosing print size!

I took the prints to a frame store here, and had custom mats cut for non-custom frames (the prints are 18”x24” in 22”x28” frames.) I wanted a real pop of color to complement the print, so I painted a generic frame with a custom color. I’m obsessed with coral right now and chose a slightly lighter, pinker shade to match one of the graphic balloons.

It took me about a week of sporadic work to sand the frame, do a few coats of tinted primer with sanding in between, then do a few coats of high gloss coats of the coral paint. Even though this will hang on a wall, I wanted to finish all sides, so I painted the back of the frame too, and found a nice patterned paper to staple to the back, then used the same paper to wrap them framed prints.

I’m super happy with how these turned out — even if it took me about two months from inception to completion! I love finding unique gifts for my friends, usually off-cycle (I’m never good about sticking to present deadlines like birthdays and Chrismukkah), but making them has been even better.

Thanks for having me, Kate!