The story behind my new 'Climate - Kids' range - Jane Foster - behind the scenes.
My new ‘Climate - Kids’ logo
It was back at the start of summer 2019 that I first began thinking about creating a new range of products under the umbrella title ‘Climate - Kids’. My initial thoughts were that I wanted to encourage a conversation between children and adults about Climate Change - to start thinking about how we can all make a difference.I adopted my daughter twelve years ago now and I’m determined to do everything I can to help give her a better future on this planet. I want her to know that I tried to make a difference. The young activist Greta Thunberg and David Attenborough have been a huge influence to me creating this range.
So… what could I do or how could it possibly work?
I initially started to draw a few characters that had hair like the weather - clouds, wind and rain.
I added some rain drops onto a dress and gave another a sort of ‘Rainbow’ hairstyle. I had my first ever family holiday abroad - we took the Ferry to France and my suitcase was full of fabric, fine line pens, my light box, toy stuffing and my needles and threads! (You can tell I’m not great at taking ‘time off’!!) When we arrived, I moved the kitchen table next to the window where there was maximum light and my daughter and I spent hours and hours drawing together.
I needed to create some prototypes of my toys to see if they would look ok when stuffed. (**Not all illustrations translate well into stuffed toys - I’ve learnt this from many years of trying different shapes!) I did some rough sketches onto fabric using a sharpie pen and made them into flat toys before stuffing them. You can see these below - some are better than others!
Hand illustrated fabric toys - stage one!
Sharpie pen calico prototypes!
My next stage was to create some neater illustrations so I could then get some digitally printed fabric produced. I started with some monochrome designs and experimented with table cloths and bedding, before also creating some more toys. (*I also created some sample bedding and curtains just for fun).
My toys were then sent off to a special lab to be CE tested. *The printed fabric, fabric panel on the reverse, stuffing and strength of these toys all had to be tested in order for me to legally sell these to children.
Despite being a huge fan of monochrome, I was aware that I needed to not give the impression that this range was just featuring white kids. I wanted the kids to be multicultural so I designed eight new characters below. I named them Ed, Chip, Uma, Roo, Erik, Polly, Fleur and Tyler.
*It was during this time that I needed to design a logo so I chose to draw an ever so slightly wonky rainbow by hand. I don’t like things that are too perfect so if you look closely, you’ll see it’s a bit wonky! I then chose to properly protect my ‘Climate - Kids’ name and rainbow logo so I got everything properly Trademarked (for a variety of ‘classes’) and also bought several domain names to give me the option of expanding this to a separate website should I choose to at a later date.
I started to create some prints and cards using a wonderful Planet Friendly printers based in Leeds called Print.work. I felt it was incredibly important to create prints using paper that’s been made from 100% genuine de-inked post consumer waste that is FSC certified and that the paper is 100% recycled. I also purchased recycled Kraft envelopes, stickers, postcards, bookmarks and designed some new toy labels. (see some of my products below)
I also sourced some Fairtrade Organic Cotton bags.
Why do FSC prints make such great gifts? 1. They’re created from sustainable forrests and use very little quantity. 2. They don’t require much packaging (and the packaging can be recycled), 3. Long enjoyment level as a print can stay on a wall for many years, 4. You’re supporting a creative person, 5. When you no longer want your print, you can re-send it to someone else or recycle it.
