It is rare that I find my creative idea for a book in just a few days. Often I need up to two weeks of research, looking at the photos, going jogging, looking at books and magazines, going to stores or museums.... then something hits me. Often it can be in the middle of the night, or while I am in a body sculpt class. Or like in this project, it can happen as I am in front of my computer working on the layout.
My client wanted this type of background because she had seen it in another job I had done.
So, although that made my life easier, the difficulty here was not to repeat myself.
But at least I already had the base, and if you are an artist, once you have that, then usually everything else falls into place.
So the background was there, but I needed a "thing" to make it sparkle.
Start with the font. I found this ornate font which in the end was too ornate for India. More research led me to find a font that creates ornate corners. If you look carefully at the decoration in my opening pages, you will notice that those squiggly lines are actually "corners" for frames. I just added them on top of each other and end up getting this beautiful arrangement. I used it throughout the album, along with pieces of cardboard, Indian postage stamps, negative strips and ripped pieces of paper.
Oh, you will notice in the sixth layout, the technique that I like using that I talk about in my Peru album : that of repeating different shots of the same subject and then using it in a repetitive fashion in my layout. I love the effect, and one's eyes never stop wandering from one photo to the next.
I did a lot of research on India and added historical facts and information into most of the pages. Besides that, I also tried to add humor and personal stories that my client told me at our initial meeting. In the end the viewer will feel part of the trip and come out of the experience with a new bit of knowledge about India!
