THINGS WE SHOULD THINK ARE COOL
During 2021, over the course of a few months, I decided to illustrate and write about 10 things that I think are undeniably cool. Things that often go unappreciated, and aren’t given enough credit for being the way they are. And now, here’s the finished project!
If you’re curious what the book actually reads like, feel free to enjoy this poorly narrated read-through of the first half of the first edition. Or you can scroll below to see some of the pages that were done for the book!
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PROCESS
The project started as a list on my phone. Every now and again I’ll have a moment where these ‘cool’ things would hit me like a tonne of bricks. I’d be walking down the street, when all of a sudden my brain would be overwhelmed with the notion of:
“Oh my god! - Is it not just incredible that those seagulls don’t need shoes?! Just look at how flappy their feet are! They’re unprotected and they’re completely fine with it! THAT’S INCREDIBLE!”
Odd, I know. But these things can be so persistent in my mind that I thought it’d be useful to write them down, maybe for a future project, or perhaps to aid a physcologist in giving me some form of clinical diagnosis, who was to say.
For quite a while these things just stayed on the list. Often there’d be weeks or months were nothing would be added. I didn’t want to force anything to be on there, only those moments that had blown my mind at some point. I suppose other people wouldn’t really know if I’d followed that structure or not. I could probably be just as enthusiastic about things that I hadn’t had these moments about and people wouldn’t know otherwise. But I wanted to keep the project personal, and I wanted it to remain true to the list. So, only things that have truly racked my brain at one point or another have made it on there. Some of them are quite reasonable, whilst others (occasionaly quite a few) are a bit daft.
Over time the list got longer and I found myself wanting to turn it into a project, but I was unsure what the correct approach to materialising it would be. It was only after I bought one of Rach Lloyd’s miniature books (which is delightful by the way) that I realised the route I wanted to go. I’ve done bookbinding in my spare time before, never anything crazy, but I’ve always enjoyed the process of setting up the signatures, folding and sewing etc. I just enjoy being a crafty/hands-on person, so I was really excited to sink my teeth into a project where I could meld that with illustration and come out with a book on the other side.
And from there, I was away. I spent some time over the course of a few months illustrating the images, as well as developing the type choices, typesetting the pages, writing the actual words and choosing the paper.
And now, here we are! First Edition complete! I’ve no plans to churn these books out periodically, they’ll just happen whenever another 10 things have been added to the list, and I subsequently go through all the previous aforementioned stages again. I want it to remain as something I craft on the side for fun, rather than have it feel like a job. Unless I suppose it goes international and I can become a sell-out, get a ghost writer and spend my time going on book tours, doing meet and greets and all that other corporate jazz.
But as it is, I’m quite happy with it being a small passion project that I can do whenever I’d like. And honestly, I’d say that’s a pretty ‘cool’ thing to have.
If you’re curious what the book actually reads like, feel free to enjoy this poorly narrated read-through of the first half of the first edition. Or you can scroll below to see some of the pages that were done for the book!
PROCESS
The project started as a list on my phone. Every now and again I’ll have a moment where these ‘cool’ things would hit me like a tonne of bricks. I’d be walking down the street, when all of a sudden my brain would be overwhelmed with the notion of:
“Oh my god! - Is it not just incredible that those seagulls don’t need shoes?! Just look at how flappy their feet are! They’re unprotected and they’re completely fine with it! THAT’S INCREDIBLE!”
Odd, I know. But these things can be so persistent in my mind that I thought it’d be useful to write them down, maybe for a future project, or perhaps to aid a physcologist in giving me some form of clinical diagnosis, who was to say.
For quite a while these things just stayed on the list. Often there’d be weeks or months were nothing would be added. I didn’t want to force anything to be on there, only those moments that had blown my mind at some point. I suppose other people wouldn’t really know if I’d followed that structure or not. I could probably be just as enthusiastic about things that I hadn’t had these moments about and people wouldn’t know otherwise. But I wanted to keep the project personal, and I wanted it to remain true to the list. So, only things that have truly racked my brain at one point or another have made it on there. Some of them are quite reasonable, whilst others (occasionaly quite a few) are a bit daft.
Over time the list got longer and I found myself wanting to turn it into a project, but I was unsure what the correct approach to materialising it would be. It was only after I bought one of Rach Lloyd’s miniature books (which is delightful by the way) that I realised the route I wanted to go. I’ve done bookbinding in my spare time before, never anything crazy, but I’ve always enjoyed the process of setting up the signatures, folding and sewing etc. I just enjoy being a crafty/hands-on person, so I was really excited to sink my teeth into a project where I could meld that with illustration and come out with a book on the other side.
And from there, I was away. I spent some time over the course of a few months illustrating the images, as well as developing the type choices, typesetting the pages, writing the actual words and choosing the paper.
And now, here we are! First Edition complete! I’ve no plans to churn these books out periodically, they’ll just happen whenever another 10 things have been added to the list, and I subsequently go through all the previous aforementioned stages again. I want it to remain as something I craft on the side for fun, rather than have it feel like a job. Unless I suppose it goes international and I can become a sell-out, get a ghost writer and spend my time going on book tours, doing meet and greets and all that other corporate jazz.
But as it is, I’m quite happy with it being a small passion project that I can do whenever I’d like. And honestly, I’d say that’s a pretty ‘cool’ thing to have.