my first frankfurt book fair was a blast!

last week i went to the frankfurt book fair, and for the first time i was carrying my portfolio to show to publishers - so exciting! one should think i had enough time to prepare, but of course the days and nights before were spent in a manic state - drawing, printing and drinking lots of tea.

luckily, i had my illustrator friends billy and stephanie to accompany and support me. i wasn't sure what to expect, knowing that my portfolio is a bit of a mixed bag - with editorial illustrations from my time at prinz magazine, pattern designs, random images and some new book projects. but i was off to a great start on wednesday morning at coppenrath, where i got some lovely feedback and was encouraged to send them stuff. actually, everyone at the publishers i saw was really nice and encouraging, even if they considered my work as too mature for their childrens books (although i have been told there are some grumpy ones, too!).

day one confirmed for me that i need to focus my portfolio on my strengths and on the projects i really want to work on, like book covers and editorial illustrations. this was also reflected in the short consultation i had booked with illustration consultant karin gruss at the beginning of day two, which was very helpful as she has a great eye for spotting your strengths and weaknesses and some ideas as to which publishers might be the right fit. it was also interesting to see that the publishers you think of as a great fit for your work might not think that at all - and the other way round, so don't dismiss publishers hastily when you come to the book fair the first time!

i spent four days at the book fair and had a great time talking to fourteen publishers, also collecting contact details from a few more, and meeting lots of people i know from university as well as making some new friends while waiting in line for a consultation or hanging out at the long table at the booth of the illustratoren organisation ... here are some impressions from the frankfurt book fair and the many gorgeous books on show - enjoy!

a little sleepy but excited: off to the book fair, day one!

first thing: collecting all the dates for consultation hours

the best place to hang out, relax and regroup

the nosy crow booth

clever book idea from australian publisher lake press

cheeky! i love jean jullien's new book (or is it?!)

dear adam rex, i love what you do!

why should an elephant wear pants? exactly! too cute!

indiecon from hamburg selling the best independent magazines

gorgeous minimal design with perforated cover (of course - it's a book about stamps)

matilda, james, charlie and sophie

another project that has been brewing for a long time is this series of book covers for roald dahl titles. i remember drawing a cover idea for "matilda" at university which ended up in the yearly exhibition, but i never followed it up - until now. the concept is that of a circle or tiny globe that the characters stand on while facing whatever's happening in the book, and you can group them all together to form the full circle. (which - in this layout at least - would be not very practical for placement in the shops, because half the books would be upside down, as a very helpful publishing lady at the book fair pointed out!) -  i need to work on readability, also colour decisions were very hard to make, so here you have two different ones - they are a work in progress. i want to focus on cover designs, because i LOVE it - distilling a whole book down to one image, finding one specific angle to twist a great design idea around - just being on point.

pattern, anyone?

here are some pattern designs that i'm putting into my book fair portfolio:
three hessian inspired patterns and one with plasters that i had printed as consolation cards a few years back.

"the owl and the pussycat went to sea ..."

when i read edward lear's nonsense poem "the owl and the pussycat" (~1870), i knew i had to illustrate it someday. that day arrived this summer, when i met up with some friends for a long weekend of drawing and writing. out of this came a booklet dummy of "kauz und katze", with the text translated to german by me. when working on it further, plain coloured backgrounds seemed too boring, so i tried out some photo collaging. i need to keep working on this - finding the right photo is just as hard as finding the right colour!

100 ways of getting ready for frankfurt book fair ...

... one of them is creating mock-up book covers from illustrations like these handletterings. lots of fun - now i need to make up some content!