The idea to produce a set of small books about Ludlow began as a small project for my Graphic Design course at Cardiff Metropolitan University. I was asked to create a piece of printed matter — it could be a zine, hardback book or pamphlet. It all comes under the term of an ‘artist book’, which is often published in a small runs under 500. Sometimes they are entirely unique! It was an entirely new project to me. It’s not something we normally do on the graphics course. I decided to do something that means a lot to me and I had the idea to produce a book about Ludlow — the place where I grew up!

For the love of Ludlow

I have lived here all my life and love how small and quaint it is! The Tudor buildings are full of so much history and knowledge, and the streets are full of colour and the friendliest people. I just knew I had to use Ludlow as my muse.

The idea for this project actually came from an illustration I created back in September 2019 for the Ludlow Food Festival and its 25th anniversary. I wanted to create something special and memorable and did a map of the town centre featuring illustrations of Ludlow’s tourist hot spots! The map features very colourful illustrations of buildings and businesses such as The Feathers, The Blue Boar, The Queens, and The Charlton Arms. I wanted to illustrate Ludlow in a colourful way that reflected just how beautiful and serene it really is!

Just to illustrate

So I used the map as a starting point for my school project. I also knew I wanted to create a colourful book or zine to sell or distribute around Ludlow, which could be memorable tokens for tourists to take away from their visit.

I visited the places I wanted to illustrate and include in my book, such as: Florabunda, Carvell’s, Harp Lane Deli, and Dugan’s. It was important to me to show how many small businesses we have here in town and to support them and include them in my book. As a market town, small businesses play a big part in Ludlow, we rely heavily on local trades and I wanted to highlight this. In the illustrations of the building, I added colour and things inside the shop windows, for example, plants for Florabunda and cakes and sweets for Dugan’s Patisserie – these little touches add character! I created the book using traditional book-making and binding skills.

Made to order

At the end of the project we held a book fair at my university where I, and all my other classmates, sold our handmade artist books. It’s was a really interesting project to work on and added to my skills. Now, these small books, made to celebrate local Ludlow in all its colour, are for sale for £7.50 and all made to order!

Once an order has been placed each book is handmade and costs £7.50 (excl. postage).

To order visit my Instagram page or email me.