As we mentioned in a previous post, it’s not always the big jobs and the high profile clients that give us as designers the most pleasure. Sometimes it’s smaller jobs that put the smiles on our faces for no reason other than they were enjoyable to do or a bit off the beaten track and an adventure.
Our rebranding of Adventures & Tea Parties was just that. With a colour palette and style borrowing heavily from bygone times, classic book covers, children’s illustration and just general whimsy, visually it’s an eclectic endeavour that tries to put into pictures what one very talented person does.
Vintage colour, interesting type and a tagline that explains clearly what it’s all about come together to form something that we had a bundle of fun working on.
Adventures & Tea Parties is all about craft, about making and about escaping into a world that’s not quite in the now, a simpler world where perhaps, life is more enjoyable, less pressurised and more fun. Like Swallows and Amazons (don’t read this article on the film, it will change your view on it forever) meets Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
In fact, a touchstone and influence on the new Adventures & Tea Parties design was in fact the original covers for the Swallows & Amazons by Clifford Webb but also the latest cover for the new Vintage Classics edition of Swallows and Amazons by the Finnish illustrator Pietari Posti (and others in the series too). Incidentally the new cover design won the prestigious 2013 V&A Book Cover Illustration Award. We think you’ll agree, it’s pretty nice and oozes vintage cool.
Want some inspiration for book design or print in general? Here’s a link to an amazing little tumblr site that’s got all sorts of gems on it. Enjoy!
And finally, be sure to check out the Adventures and Tea Parties website. They do some pretty amazing gifts.