Spring Flowers

Since lockdown started and schools closed in mid-March, I’ve printed regularly, but mainly my quarantine journal, along with a few small personal projects. But last week I finally found some time and inspiration and did an iterative design sprint inspired by spring flowers in my yard, producing short runs of six new card designs.

It started by noticing that some of the decorative wood type pointers I picked up at the Hamilton Wood Type Museum last year have somewhat leaf like shapes, and likewise some of the wood type ornaments I bought from Moore Wood Type have designs clearly inspired by flowers (thus some of them are called “fleurons“). So what if instead of using them to evoke flowers, I turned them back into flowers again? I set up my chase to print A2 folded cards, and started pulling type.

The first four designs I came up with were all variations on the same basic form—a single stem, basal leaves, and a single flower at the top, inspired by tulips, iris, dandelion, and bluebells (six florets instead of a single flower!).

The next design took on the simplicity of these, but drew inspiration from the seedlings I was planting in my vegetable garden, turning a large metal parenthesis and two wood teardrop shapes into a just sprouted seedling.

WHat’s coming up for you?

The last design got a little more abstract. Taking inspiration from my herbicide-free lawn full of dandelions and violets (and, yes, some grass), a put together an homage to sunny spring days with cool breezes.

We may be in the middle of a global pandemic, but spring still happens anyway. Enjoy beauty where you can find it.

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