Designing a Catalogue and other bits and pieces…

A good exhibition needs a snazzy catalogue that will be unique and define you.  I was tossing up between colour schemes and designs when I decided the picture of the masaii warriors performing their jumping dance would be my cover page.  The red colour of their sarongs jumped out at me and I realised that the sandy yellow of the African landscape was the perfect compliment to the bright reds of their clothing.  This became my perfect colour palette for the artwork that followed. 

Determining how the artwork would be captioned and written up was my next challenge.  I tossed up a lot of ideas with my partner and then went back to read bits from the blog I had kept on my journey.  After a number of attempts I wrote the first piece on Laughter – the Universal Bond which became my template for the rest of the catalogue. 

It took a lot of brain dumps and discussions with my partner Steven before the words to each picture were written.  Eventually I began to see more of a pattern and the writing highlighted not just the place where the photograph was taken but my reflections of that scene.  I feel pleased with the final result because I am now not only sharing my photography but also my writing which formed a big part of my year away! 

As I mentioned previously, the catalogue was completed in Microsoft Publisher.  It was printed by means of a digital printer and cost approx. $5.50 a copy.

A final copy of the finished product has been included as an e-book at the end of this blog.   Once I had designed my cover page, the invitations, flyers, thank you cards and all other exhibition material such as posters fell out of that theme easily.  I have included a sample of the invitation and my business card so you get an idea of the material that was produced.  It took a lot of evenings and weekends from our lives but I felt pleased with the finished product.

A sample invitation and business card.. 

               

 

“Every day is an opportunity to be creative – the canvas is your mind, the brushes and colours are your thoughts and feelings, the panorama is your story, the complete picture is a work of art called, ‘my life’. Be careful what you put on the canvas of your mind today – it matters.”  — Innerspace