Letter Art by Clare Youngs: Book Review

Letter Art:

35 stylish letters to make and give

By Clare Youngs

CICO Books, April 2014

£14.99 Hardback

ISBN 978-1-78249-084-5

Star rating: ****

Clare Youngs, CICO Books star craft author, has come up with a fontastic :) idea for a new title: letterforms in all shapes, sizes, and media. Drawing on her background in graphic design, Clare has produced a book full of typographically-inspired designs.

In olden days, familiarity with typefaces used to be the domain of professional graphic designers and typesetters. Now that everyone has access to computer word-processing, everybody’s got a favourite font. And of course, alphas are especially important to card-makers and scrapbookers.

Most of the projects in this book are large-scale home dec ideas – the sort of thing you’d pay a mint for from a trendy mail order company. The projects look just great, are do-able – and inexpensive, to make, too. Lots of scope for using re-cyled materials. Super graphics, in all senses.

Letter Art is not exclusively a papercraft title, but papercrafting does feature prominently in it, even in the sections not devoted to papercrafts (as you would expect). The book is divided into the following sections: Papercraft Letters, Painted and Printed Letters (lots of paper-based stuff here), Mixed Media Letters, and Fabric Letters. 

The attractively-photographed projects are accompanied by easy-to-follow step-by-steps, illustrated by (wait for it) --- Clare and Ian Youngs (understanding of the brief guaranteed!). There’s a section of reduced-sized templates back-of-book – but you are encouraged to use the letterforms of your own choice.

Of course, letters and paper go together – and as a papercrafter, I do think that the papercraft projects are the most successful. Some of the projects include: Vintage Graphic Letters – choose a letter, enlarge it and 3-D-ify it in cardboard covered with patterned paper. Foamboard Lollipop Letters: whimsical letters-on-a-stick. (Could make a fun birthday party centrepiece.) Sculptural Scrollwork: jumbo quilled letter. The Mexican Paper Letters work a treat: trad Mexican papercut tissue paper, but in letterforms. The Corrugated Capital is a very clever idea. The ridges of the corrugated card are selectively flattened to create areas of light and shadow. The Slot-Together Letters in mixed prints work a treat. Reflecting the popular Circus-trend in typefaces, there’s a Fairground Flair 3-D letterform.

If you are up for trying projects outside your papercrafter’s comfort zone, there’s lots to choose from. There’s the Wire Cage Letter (wire-cutters required), and the Fruit Crate Letter (some woodworking lite called for). 

So – Letter Art amounts to big fun with jumbo letterforms. This title would make an ideal gift for a crafter.  It comes out in April – so you can pre-order it now.  And I will eagerly anticipate whatever Clare Youngs turns her very creative hands to next.

Note: I was supplied with a review copy of this title.

One-sheet Pop-Ups

Card above, folded flat.

Yesterday I featured Paul Jackson's new book on simple one-sheet pop-ups. For today's post, I've done a quick study and come up with the cards above. Still on my training wheels - nothing really fancy in the cut-and-fold department, but I think you can see how one-sheet pop-ups can be very effective - and fun.
I added a strut to the designer shopping bag birthday card, so that it can be propped up, easel-style (but it still fits on a single sheet of A4 cardstock). The shopping bag also has a gift tag, as an additional feature.
Here are your printable cards:
FlowerThanksPop-Up.pdf 
FlowerpotThanksPopUpSelect.pdf
ShoppingBagBirthdayPopUp.pdf

The flowerpot and shopping bag cards have how-tos printed on-page, to talk you through the cutting and folding.
The flower Thanks card is pretty simple - so no on-page instructions.
Just cut the card out, cut the scalloped slit with a craft knife, then score the folds. Examine the photo to see how the card is folded, taking notice of mountain and valley fold directions.
These cards collapse down flat for posting. The flower card and the shopping bag card fold down into neat rectangles. The flowerpot card folds down into an irregular shape, which is more than compensated for by the surprise factor when the recipient opens it up in its 3-D splendour!
Don't forget to check out Paul Jackson's new book to learn about designing your own one-sheet Pop-Ups.

Pop-Up Designs by Paul Jackson: Book Review

Cut and Fold Techniques for Pop-Up Designs

By Paul Jackson

Laurence King Publishing, March 2014

128 pages

Paperback, £15.95

ISBN 978 1 7806 7327 1

Star rating: *****

Papercraft expert extrordinaire Paul Jackson is back with a new addition to his excellent series of papercraft design titles for Laurence King Publishing. The subject of this title is pop-ups – I know, smile – but the content of the book is not what you are probably expecting. No, it is not slide-rule time for paper engineering geeks, but rather a streamlined system for designing one-page pop-ups. 

Written with the design professional in mind, the idea is to create a simple, attention-grabbing 3-D pop-up suitable as a backdrop for printed advertising – from just one sheet of card. Clock that, papercrafters: no gluing, nothing fancy. Stunning results from just one sheet of cardstock. According to the author, the technique “creates ‘negative’ (or empty) spaces behind sections of card which have been cut and folded to stand forward, so for every negative void there is an equivalent ‘positive’ of card.” The results are dramatic – sculptural, even architectural. Card-makers: this is the mother lode!

Like all of Paul Jackson’s titles in the series, you are taught the principles of the concept so you can master it and design for yourself. You learn how to create combinations of folds and cuts to make 3-D pop-ups that fold down flat. The first chapter shows how a simple slit in a piece of card can produce a variety of results, depending on how the paper is folded. In Chapter 3, Developing the Basics, you learn how to “Take the Cut for a Walk” – make a more complex cut line to create striking results. When varying the card silhouette is added to this, your options are multiplied bigtime (curvy or zigzag cut + different card outline shape = infinite possibilities). Chapter 4 is Releasing the Folded Edge. Here, you learn to create projecting sections along a crease to dramatic effect. Designs that really stand out! Chapter 5 is Multiple Gutters and Generations – fancy facetted creations – one-page pop-up graduate school, you might say.  Wow factor and something to aspire to. 

This book accomplishes its aim of teaching a specific papercraft design skill. It achieves this aim clearly, concisely, in style, and with humour and enthusiasm. 

Don’t forget to check out Paul Jackson’s other titles for Laurence King. You can build up a mini-library of papercraft titles to add to your papercraft expertise. Although written with the design professional in mind, these titles are user-friendly and completely accessible to the hobbyist papercrafter.

These titles are:

Structural Packaging: Design Your Own Boxes and 3-D Forms

This title, my personal favourite, is indispensible. It teaches you how to design a net – the 2-D pattern template for making a 3-D box.

Folding Techniques for Designers

This book is ideal for origami enthusiasts. It teaches how to create fancy multi-facetted folds ( these are currently in vogue for lampshades).

Cut and Fold Techniques for Promotional Materials

Fun stuff! Interactive novelty designs, such as flexagons - neverending movable folded shapes. The chapter on envelopes is superb.

In my next post, I’ll be featuring some one-page pop-ups that I’ve crafted after doing a quick study of Paul Jackson’s new book.

Note: I was given a review copy of this title.