Friday, October 31, 2008

New banner.

Look at my new banner. Isn't it lovely? It was designed for me by the seriously talented Sarah Laing. I think it shows I'm serious about this blog thing, and that I don't just want my blog to look like everyone else's. But more than that, it captures the aesthetic that drew me to Thomas Edgar as a character in the first place. Before I started The Sound of Butterflies, I was already a collector of antique prints, the very kind that appear above. I never had any butterflies, but I have shells, bugs, birds, flies and plants, many of which I found in a funny out-of-the-way spot at the Portobello markets in London. I wrote about it on the Picador blog a while back (scroll down a fair way to find my post).

So I'm happy. Looking at this banner makes me happy, in the same way that looking at my prints made me want to write about the sort of man who might have done these drawings in the first place. And clearly I keep coming back to this aesthetic - my new novel has a collector as well. Two, in fact. I just can't leave them alone, it seems.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

love it

Anonymous said...

It's gorgeous :-)

Jane said...

It reminds me of the collections at my local museum in Liverpool.
I look at the trays and imagine the stories of the people who look at these and work with them.

Anonymous said...

Sarah is a clever chook!

Ruth (Book Focus) said...

(Sorry, just realised I absent-mindedly signed in under my old username to post that comment - the comment from "phyntosia" was from me)

Vanda Symon said...

That's lovely, Rachael - and well done Sarah.

I've always adored those illustrative plates with plants, or insects or butterflies. There's something magical about them, and the effect they have on me hasn't diminished over the years.

Your blog was distinctive anyway!

Rachael King said...

Thanks all - Ruth your comment from Phyntosia hasn't shown up at all - do you want to re-post?

Ruth (Book Focus) said...

Oh, how weird! Sorry... basically I was just echoing what everyone else has said about what a lovely banner it is and how good it looks - the overall effect of it somehow seems to "fit" really well with your blog. :)

Kebabette said...

love it, as a typography junkie the font is wonderful too