Design Contest Entry

I wanted to share my process. 

I started brainstorming - 

-reading elevates, reading uplifts, reading transforms, reading lets your soar to new worlds, adventures, I thought about "Reading Rainbow" and it's theme song - butterfly in the sky, I can fly twice as high, take a look, it's in a book... 

and all these thoughts led me to a connection between books and butterflies and then the idea was born!

I started with these graphics and printed them and then painstakingly cut them out.

Then I watercolor painted what would become the butterfly.

   Then I cut out each butterfly.

Then I went in search of book pages.  After researching, I came across the Library of Congress and books that were in "public domain".  A public domain book is one that is not covered by intellectual property rights or copyright, usually because the rights have expired. Once a book enters public domain, it can be reprinted and distributed without the need to get permission from the original author.

Of course, I carefully chose the book and page I wanted to use.  

A Christmas Carol - where Scrooge learns he hasn't missed Christmas

Alice in Wonderland - where Alice speaks to the Caterpillar

Robinson Crusoe

Little Women

Peter Pan - where Wendy learns to fly

Pride and Prejudice - where Mr. Darcy says My affections and wishes are unchanged...

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - where Dorothy wants to go home to Kansas

I painted the body - by painting and then folding what I painted in half.  Then I watercolor painted the sky, creating clouds by removing paint with a crumpled napkin.

I cut out the book pages and taped them to the butterfly outlines.

Then I scanned everything and started putting it together digitally.  I added black around the edges of the wings, with white dots.  I added the words "Reading Uplifts".

This was my entry - the contest was for the Wichita Public Library to design a new library card in the adult category.  

I learned there were 29 adult entries.  The selection committee narrowed it down to three options.  I was sad because I really put my heart into this contest and fell in love with my design.

Have you ever entered a contest?  I love design contests!  I can't wait for the next one!