Bethany Schilling

Group Critique (Presentation)

Yesterday I had a group critique, which was more of a presentation of what we’ve produced a week before hand in.

I sent my book to print on Thursday night, so I presented two PDFs of my book (the main content and the front cover).

The feedback I received was very good, people have recently commented that I have a distinct illustration style which is such a lovely compliment.

People have questioned why I haven’t included actual physical smells into my book; there are three reasons for this:

  1. A combination of smells would merge into one very odd (and presumably unpleasant) scent. That’s not what I’m going for. 
  2. Paper does not retain scent unless it’s ‘scratch & sniff’. Living on a student budget, there is no way I have the financial ability to do this. 
  3. It’s an illustration book. 

Neil Mabbs felt that the screen printed illustrations don’t ‘smell’ as much as the other drawings, as they are only one colour. The reason why I made some screen printed images is because it’s a technique I want to improve on. However, I have taken this comment into account and I will make some more Marlboro/Polo illustrations in ink. (The ones in my sketchbook are really rough).

More Market Research

1. Hato Press

“At Hato Press we believe in the innate pleasure of making things and encourage others to join us. We also like trees and that’s why we only stock recycle paper in house”.

Hato Press are a ‘speciality printing and publishing house’. I think it’s wonderful that there are companies who still believe in the beauty of hand printing and I think this is the appropriate market for my book. 

The “ABCDEFRUITS & VEGETABLES” illustrations (see first screen shot) look as though they have been initially screen printed. The target audience is parents, and the fact that the images have this tactile quality makes it friendly and approachable for children. Because it looks hand made, children are more able to relate to it on a personal level. If the images were made digitally, it would not have this effect.

2. Etsy.com 

“Etsy is the world’s handmade market place”

(So you can see why I love it.)

“Our mission is to empower people to change the way the global economy works. We see a world in which very-very small businesses have much-much more sway in shaping the economy, local living economies are thriving everywhere, and people value authorship and provenance as much as price and convenience. We are bringing heart to commerce and making the world more fair, more sustainable, and more fun.”


Thinking about my book and where it would possibly sell, I think the above two places are the right kind of market for it. Hato Press specialises in screen and hand printing processes, and Etsy stock a lot of hand made books and journals. I think my book would appeal to men and women (around the ages of 18 - 35 perhaps) who have creative and artistic interests and hobbies. That’s my guess anyway!

Front Cover

This is a scanned & edited (brightened) image of my front cover.

I decided to make a purely typographic front cover because my book is obviously heavily illustrated, & I wanted to create a balance. Also, I am always trying to improve my typographic skills as it’s something I love to do & a very worthwhile practice to be able to do well. 

I have posted this initial piece on a previous post, whereby I sketched it out free hand onto graph paper. As I mentioned, the kerning is not consistent. This is of course something I need to practice & develop, but I think it kind of works in this particular context. My book is something very tactile & personal, so I wanted to create everything (type & images) as hand rendered as possible.

I decided to screen print my title because it is another technical process I would like to improve on. It’s also something I love doing. I chose a magenta ink because it’s obviously bright & attractive; a black front cover would not look as warm & inviting. 
The typography is based on a font called “FFF Tusj” which I came across whilst scrolling through my font menu. It’s bold & sketchy, which I thought was perfect for my front cover. 

I had a bit of trouble with my initial prints, for some reason the bottom part of the text did not expose properly? So I had to re do it all which took all day & I only had about 3 decent prints out of 15. But I suppose that’s all part of the learning process. It’s all about too much ink, too little ink, too much pressure, too little pressure…usually these kinds of ‘accidents’ work in your favour, but because the typography is so particular (with the lines running through the letters) the correct amount of ink and pressure is key in ensuring a perfect print. Due to working to such a tight deadline, I used the best print, scanned it in & brightened it on Photoshop.

I made a secondary typographic piece for my name (“by Bethany Schilling”). I used the same font to keep it looking consistent, but drew it in black, so not to distract from the title. 

This is a screen shot of my front cover as a whole: