2D Scrumptious - 12 Days of Radley

Radley: Book Trailer from Picasso Pictures on Vimeo.


As part of The love Monster project in reference I wanted to look at other adverts for illustrated books of a similar nature. I decided to analyse this one as I recently started employment at Radley and have been selling this book in the shop over christmas. The general idea of it is that it is the company's take on the twelve days of christmas. Steven Lenton's illustrations for it are fantastic and really well done. The Illustrations of the each of the twelve days actually link to certain ranges that were currently in store, including Streets of London (with the soldiers) and Patisierrie Radley (a dog with cakes). As you can see below examples of pages from the book if you click the link.

http://2dscrumptious.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/the-making-of-radleys-twelve-days-of.html

I find it really interesting to read this process that's gone into designing the book and how an animatic was actually made by the illustrator. I really like how the dog is brought to life in the box and given so much energy. I do think that there was a lot more potential with the trailer but I kind of like the fact they kept it simple, I think it emphasises the little details of the tail wagging and the ribbon in the 'y' tightening.  I think it is important to mention at this stage how the process was then past onto Picasso Pictures to do the animation and Linda Kalcov brought it to life with flash and added texture with after effects. Here is a snip of the storyboard.

I think the most valuable thing about looking at this is the process the freelance illustrator went through to get to this stage it's rare you get such detailed information about what goes on behind the scenes in a project like this especially when it's on short time scale.

http://www.2dscrumptious.com/Radley-s-Twelve-Days-of-Christmas

However I do have to mention that if I have one comment to make it is on the narrative of the book, I just think that, one thing that would of made it so much more successful is that if instead of the actual words to the twelve days of christmas they could of changed it so that every day was a different Radley product. I think this would of worked especially well because people don't realise how many products Radly do, from hand bags to purses, to passport covers, to umberellas, to hats and gloves and scarves to watches and so on. I just think it would of made it that bit more successful. But saying that I do think it's wonderful and especially as £2 of each book went to the Kids Company Charity, i think it's a really nice touch.

Below are some links to other pieces of Steven Lenton's work I really liked.

http://www.2dscrumptious.com/Walkies-Cards

http://www.2dscrumptious.com/Waterstones-Harper-Collins-Beauty-The-Beast-Competition

Mackinnon and Saunders

This is probably one of the most mesmerising talk I sat in during Bradford Animation Festival. Honestly such a good promotion for the company. They won a lifetime achievement award and so many positive things were said about the puppet making company Mackinnon and Saunders I know it made the people sat around me also emotional. It just made the company seem like such a good environment to be involved with, everyone was crazy about puppets and they worked like a family and created some really amazing puppets. The way I know it made a big impression on me is the fact that I walked out of there wanting to go home and make a puppet and work for them. That shows how inspiring this company is to students like me. I think they had a lot of interesting things to say about how the company was set up and how they got to where they are and some details on the clients they worked with. It was so unbelievably interesting, I hope my legacy leaves students as in as much awe as I am of this company.

http://www.mackinnonandsaunders.com/