Illustrating Outside the Book: Fred Blunt Breathes Colour Back into Local Library

When you think of children’s illustration, it’s only natural to think picture books, but the exciting thing about illustration is just how much you can do with it.

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Children’s illustrators do, primarily make picture books, but they’ll often do more where their schedule allows. They take part in all sorts of events, up and down the country, and they often share their skills closer to home — in their own community. This is exactly what Fred Blunt has done, and even better, it involves his local library. LM

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FB: It all started when an artist friend of mine got in touch and told me that South Swindon Parish had taken over the Old Town Library, and were planning a renovation project. What’s more, they wanted large scale, fun murals for the children’s area. He thought it would be relevant for a children’s book illustrator to pitch for the job.

Fred’s rough drafts before the final artwork, and the final designs below.

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At first I didn’t intend to pitch. The idea of taking the time out of of my picture book schedule to design and paint a mural seemed way too time-consuming. But the idea of creating something just for children, in a library, on a big scale was very exciting to me – especially in the present climate of library closures.

[Read more about library closures in an article by The Guardian here]

I then thought, if I could find a company to install it using vinyl print, I could save a lot of time and potentially make it work. I did a little research and contacted local print company, Signs Express with my proposal.

Much to my surprise, they got in contact the very next day, enthused about the project and eager to be onboard.

So I pitched my vision of a vibrant wall design, installed in vinyl print, instead of a traditionally painted mural. The Council library committee were quick to get in touch and discuss my ideas – all of which were enthusiastically received.

I went away with a vague notion of creating a bold and vibrant mural, which was going to be based on reading – showing the joy of books, and how they take you out of the everyday, and into the extraordinary.

Hot off the printing press!

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I wanted the design to be appealing over the age groups, bright and fun for the very young, but also to have enough design elements to be considered cool for the older kids (and hopefully enjoyed by their parents too).

Early on, I wanted to achieve a ‘pop art’ look for kids . . . a cartoony version of those bold Peter Blake designs, with the contained boxes of colour. I also wanted the characters to have a retro appeal, so they would be timeless.

Famous artwork by Peter Blake.

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It was great fun designing each individual box, using limited colour, so that together, they would hang nicely as a bunch of interlocking, contrasting colours – creating an overall unity.

The committee were very open to my ideas. They gave me free reign to do exactly what I wanted, which was wonderfully liberating! I even got to choose the colours of the walls and new carpets to compliment my designs.

The installation itself, took only a day for the print team to complete, and I have to admit it was a nerve-wracking wait to see if the result would live up to my expectations — but quite honestly, they exceeded them.

The vinyl finish is great! No need to worry about mucky fingers and the colours are more vivid than I imagined — or could have ever achieved with paint. Exactly the bold graphic look I was after.

It’s been a great project to be part of, and hopefully many children will enjoy the murals as they choose new books for a long time to come.

Fred pictured next to the finished mural, and his children enjoying the books in the new space.

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So if you live in the Swindon area, be sure to visit your local library!

With huge thanks to Fred and to Swindon Library.

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You can follow Fred on Instagram and Twitter

If you’d like to work with Fred, you can get in touch via his agent, Arabella Stein here.