I just met with Mr. Theo to go over my portfolio box design that I’ve been working on. Check out this site for a better idea of my inspiration it. Ever since I started thinking about building my portfolio box and how I want it to look, I’ve known that it needs to look unique and personal to me. I knew that I wanted it to look hand made and worn. Then, I started playing around with how it would look if it were made out of wood instead of covered with cloth or paper. I started browsing around in antique stores over the past couple weeks, not for any reason except to possibly find a cheap and vintage coffee table or couch, but not for anything in perticular. While looking, I saw all kinds of old boxes: cigar boxes, medicine boxes, ornamental boxes, etc. I thought it might be interesting to turn one of them into my portfolio box, but I’d have to find the right size and one that wasn’t rotting or didn’t smelled funny.
It wasn’t until I came across the Coraline box on that Knitty sight (I was probably looking for a knitting pattern) that it clicked. That box wasn’t a found object, it was handcrafted and faux-finished to look like that. I was really impressed to find out that the tools inside of it weren’t even made of metal, but handmade out of another material, just like what Theo had been working with us on in this classes at PC. Amazing! Once I put those two ideas together, I knew that Theo and I could create a antique-looking, worn “old” box to hold my prints and make it as unique and special as I believe my work to be.
We’re building it out of real mahogany wood (naturally beautiful stuff) and I’m going to search through fabric stores to find a cool cloth to line the inside. I’m even going a design custom latch. Not only is this all possible, but it’s something that I’ll be proud to present and won’t be another portfolio clone.
If any other PC illustrators are reading this, take your personality into consideration when creating your final professional presentation. We’re illustrators and artists. That means that we develope our own visual language and style in our work and it should translate harmoniously to your presentations. Our creativity and personality is so obvious in our images that it wouldn’t feel right if they were presented in a familiar and conventional way.
I can’t wait to show you when it’s finished. I’ll post pictures. I might even post pictures of the building process if possible.
Dante has lobster powers 