Wow. The last few days have been intense!

We rehearsed for Trollkrittet full days all of last week, while also tweaking the visuals, props and set design.

We worked with an external instructor some of the days, and that was very valuable help:)

Friday we kept polishing our product until five in the afternoon, and then we headed down to DNBScene for the initial run-through.

Saturday was our premiere:) I was very confident about our product, but still nervous. As I should be:)

The stage after almost everyone had left. The premiere was quite packed, so anyone going to see us on the coming Sunday should buy tickets in advance:) Just in case:)

We named this trailer the VIP lounge. The raider was three apples;) Glam:D

But the evening was a proper celebration.

A Eurovision/Premiere party:)

We had confetti cannons;) This picture is from the day after. I love the floor covered in confetti.

....and flamingoes in the jacuzzi.

Monday I worked with the champagne ladies with Annette the new designer, and jumped up and down at Dimmu Borgir in the evening. Continued work with the book today after doing another to shows of Trollkrittet.

Tomorrow morning it's another show, I'm quite liking being on stage by now:)

ILLUTRATING PROPS, AND STUFF.

Today we finished the last props for our stage show, and my family came to help us out.

My boyfriend, one of the animators at Katapult Media, came to watch us play and see if the visuals worked as they should.

Some minor tweaks, but all in place.

I'll probably be tweaking stuff until we're on stage Saturday. I want to be proud of it:)

FLOWER HAT

During rehersals with Trollkrittet today we took time to play around a little:)

The flower hat is for the evil princess in the play. She eats candy tht makes her hair sprout flowers:)

The premiére is on Saturday. Tickes and info here

ILLUSTRATIVE WEEKEND

Illustrations for my set design and backdrop for Trollkrittet are soon finished, and we are starting a week of rehersals tomorrow. Saturday we're on:)

A friend of mine took a picture of me yesterday, pointing at DNBScene and saying "Iiiiiiik, they're building our stage!" :D

Today it was summer:)

And the flamingoes were in flight:)

Tomorrow morning we'll see how much we have left to do with the visuals, and plan out the tight schedule for the next few days. Exciting! :)

DESIGNING BOOKS

A small hold up in Champagne ladies, but now back in buisness. The book will probably be published sliiiightly later than planned, but these things happen.

My designer, Annette Kristiansen, and I had a whole day workshop yesterday. It was good to work en face (literally, according to the picture above) on a project with so much personality. Got to love the little characters on her screen;)

We went through all the books where I love the design, to see if we could focus in on what typographic style that could work best for the champagne ladies.

Then we discussed back and forth about tonation of the sayings used in the book, and I even ran around the kitchen acting them out for her:)

We talked about each spread over and over again, worked with reading tempo, how you read a spread, how you read drawings, and took time to let the whole project sink in before we started the creative part. Proper preparation is gold.

It's great to do research on the styles you are passionate about, and to know the setting and scene where the book is intended for.

To know and respect a specific audience is incredibly important. When I see a product aimed at my group and style, that is poorly developed, I keep thinking that the developer never knew the scene well enough.

When this is taken lightly, your product is marketed to "everyone", which makes it generalized and you reach out to no one.

I sometimes buy books just because they are well crafted, and I know many others that do too.

It's like buying candy:)

The front cover of my book is also being designed simultaniously now, something I think is really important. Sometimes that is left to last, which usually means that everyone is tired of the project and just want a quick finish. But not this time! Yay!

(The title spread of my book now has elements from the front page, and it's lookin' goooood:)

Now I can finally consentrate 100% on making a great product, not just a product that works.

Today I worked throughly on the endpapers and typo for the front. I did more research on pagination and handmade typography, and kept sketching for the cover.

I'm very comfortable about her working on the book, I feel it's in good hands.

If you want to know which books the photos are from, give me a shout. I have to continue work now, so didn't have time to label them all.

:)

FIRST REHERSAL FOR TROLLKRITTET

Tomorrow morning Adele Duus and me will be trying out a mini-version of our show. For the first time. Wheeee:)

We've had a few workshops, with Adele in charge of text, and me with the visuals.

Today I tried to have as much visuals as possible ready, since it makes it easier to reherse. But I still have some work to do;)

Meet Sofus:)

Him and the other main character, Jon, is going on a small trip.

They have several encounters with wildlife, happily they escape.

And this is Komle. He is a troll, and you can meet him too during Festspillene:)

COSTUMES FOR TROLLKRITTET

My mum is a costume designer, and she is sewing some aprons for me and Adele Duus for when we are on stage.

Yesterday she came to our office to pick out what fabrics to use, and adapt the pattern.

We had quite a few lovely fabrics to choose from. We landed on a green cotton that I bought in Bangkok, and some leftovers from a bedspread I made.

If she has time, maybe we'll wear them on Monday when we have our first "rehersal". Ha ha. Rehersal. Whahaaaaaa:D I'm actually going to be on stage in a few weeks. Perilous!

SKETCHES FOR FRONT COVER

I've been working on the front cover of my champagne book today.

Before this it looked like this. Of course with title and a lady in there as well.

Before that, the sketch was made with the camera on my mobile.

Earlier it was drawings again.

I can't seem to decide which direction to go. Only thing I know for sure is that it can't be a white background. I was told it drives bookstore managers nuts. There is a higher wastage when the white paper gets fiddled with in bookshelves. What odd things you have to consider while designing.

What to choooooose....

SCREENSHOTS OF ILLUSTRATIVE FUN

This week I've continued the work on my champagne ladies.

Work has been quite intense, skyping with the designer almost everyday for several hours while simultaniously deciding, drawing, scanning and photoshopping.

This is probably the first time I've had this much "loose" elements and drawings. As in not a complete finished piece. But that's mainly due to the fact that the layout is being puzzled together as we work, rather than drawn out in advance in sketches. As I would normally do. But it makes a huuuge difference. The designer can now take the different elements and play around with them, and it's turning out quite fun:)

Neighter the typo or layout is finished, the designer has quite a lot of work left.

This is my favourite pread so far. No, we are not using pagination, they are only for navigating the pdf while we discuss on Skype;)

Some of the ladies are a bit more down than others;)

I collected a new quote yesterday: "There is confetti in my cava.";)
Now off to bed.

Zzzzzz;)