Back To School!



Today is the first day back for many UK schools after the long summer break. Part of going back for me was always the excitement of buying new school stationery - I have always LOVED buying new pens and trying them out to see what effects I can create!

My first design job was working in-house for stationery company, Helix, which was so much fun as I got to work on all the new product development for all their lovely back to school stationery each year. The company is now Maped-Helix, but they remain one of my favourite freelance clients as the design briefs they give me are always so creative and fun!

Maped-Helix recently sent me some of their 'Graph'Peps' fine point pens to try out, which come under their Maped brand.* In honour of the back to school period I thought I would make a little doodle film to show what they are like to draw with. The film shows the first time I used them, so you can see I took to them quite easily - they allow lots of control. My favourite was the black, because I always prefer to draw in black ink. I get scared at having to make colour decisions on the spot, which is one of the reasons I normally colour on the computer as it lets me change my mind until I get the perfect colour combination. However, there are 20 different colours in my pack, so I decided to be brave and try some (- not all!) of them out. I used two different shades of pale blue, yellow, lime green, lilac and the brightest pink, but there are lots of other colours to choose from! The pen nibs are 0.4mm, which creates quite a fine line, but by going back over the same line and outlining it you can create lots of different line effects. The ink flow is strong meaning that as well as outlining designs you can also use them to colour in areas too. There may be too much ink coming out of the nib for super-fine work, but for bold graphic designs like my doodle they are great!




Wishing everyone who is back to school this week a very happy term. (Not long until Christmas!)

Music by bensound.com
*Please note Maped-Helix have not paid me to review this product.

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