Necklace inspired by Antony and Cleopatra
Shawl inspired by Hamlet
One of my favorite books we published while I was art director at Cooperative Press (an independent craft publisher) was Defarge Does Shakespeare. The book combined knitting patterns with essays about how a Shakespeare play or sonnet had inspired the design.
For this book, I selected Zilker Hillside Theater in Austin as the photo shoot location. The outdoor theater gave us the right themed backdrop and natural lighting. The gnarled trees and outcroppings of rock surrounding the theater gave us additional dramatic settings.
Sweater inspired by Lady Macbeth
Gloves inspired by Lavinia in Titus Andronicus
Child hoodie inspired by The Winter's Tale
I also recruited the models and researched and gathered props for each design. In selecting props and helping the photographer with styling, my education in history became a real asset. The dead branches in the middle photo above, for example, are a reference to Lavinia's gruesome fate in Titus Andronicus. (If you don't know what I mean, it is perhaps best that you don't.) For the sweater inspired by Lady Macbeth (above left), I chose a small goblet because wine throughout the play symbolizes blood.
My book design (below) referenced the typographic style of early modern texts, while also maintaining visual similarity to earlier books in this series.
