I just made this new header for the website, and to go along the tops of my query letters, and I thought it might be fun to share some of the process that went into it! First, here is the finished header, full size:
I knew that I wanted something that would tie into the image that I am using for my postcards, and for the front page of the site, but I also wanted something that would represent me more generally as well. First step: research! This is always a fun part for me, and I spent a happy afternoon touring around to see what some of my favourite illustrators have done for their sites. I pasted them all into a word document so I could look at them together. Here’s a little taste:
Aren’t they gorgeous? Six such pages of headers later (I was having a lot of fun doing “research”!) I felt like I had a pretty good idea of what was out there. I’m not sure if this is a necessary step, but I definitely felt more prepared by the time I had collected and studied what more knowledgable people had done before me. I decided I wanted some foliage, done in my collage style, so I made up a page of leaves:
I also really liked the look of the hand-done fonts, so I made up (can you guess what is coming?) about six pages of my name, in different materials and fonts. I knew pretty quickly that I liked the look of the ink brush pen, so then it was a matter of doing it over and over until it looked right. It was rather meditative, although I did do some of it curled up on the couch with my husband, watching tv after the kids were in bed. There’s not much need to write your name over and over on a piece of paper once you are out of high school, and I felt like a teenager figuring out what my signature should look like again. (Not that my teenage signature bears much resemblance to what it has become!)
Then it was just a matter of sticking it all together, and playing with it in Photoshop until it looked just right. Afterwards I couldn’t resist dropping it into my research file to see if it fit in with the others, which, I think, it did!
And, because who could resist, here’s another page of amazing illustration headers, for your viewing pleasure!
