The Making of an

Ex Libris plate

 

This collection of images shows the process whereby a commission was received to develop an Ex Libris for a child.

 

Mr Ernst Grefe asked Daniel to develop a bookplate for his son Dieter. Maybe this is the first, if not , one of very few ever made for child.

 

The artist was given total freedom to create wherever his imagination took him and today we have a plate that is without a doubt, something that injects a fresh new approach to heraldic bookplate design.

 

Dieter, a baseball enthusiast, and avid reader (literature?....Cartoons, of course!) now has a design worthy of his growing library.

 

With total artistic freedom, this work shows that there can be no limitations or borders for modern heraldic art forms. Heraldry can also have a more lighthearted side. This is especially significant in a discipline that is all to often perceived as serious and traditional.

 

1. The design has two striking features. The first being a young boy which dominates the composition. The second, an optical illusion. This play on the lines of the figure become clear in the second diagram below.

2. Note the composition and position of the baseball stick and left book. From a distance it can look like ... a leg and a shoe! A little bit surrealistic , don’t you think?

Also the lettering is complete crazy and beyond every proportion. This links the child's interest in cartoon magazines.

3. Thereafter, notice the Bavarian blue lozenge as the essential piece of the coat of arms of Bavaria. Here with the final sketch, the baseball bat and book complete the balance of the figure.

 

Daniel commented, "I say it again and again .... With heraldry you can go so many ways AND it (expanding upon creative boundaries within heraldry) improves the overall performance and strength of the artwork.