The Melbourne Map is off to Texas.
Well it will be when it is printed. We received a pre-order from Houston Texas today and the buyer sent us this note.
“Thanks so much Melinda. I am really excited about the map and look forward to receiving it once all is done.
I lived in Melbourne from 1987 to 1993 and always tell people ‘Melbourne is the best city I have ever lived in’. I appreciate the PDF of the 1991 map as that is ‘my’ Melbourne.’
Wishing you and your colleagues all the best – appreciate all the hard work that has gone into this”
Peter
Photo of Texas courtesty of Anton Thomas Art – see more about Anton’s work on this previous blog post.
SPREADING THE MELBOURNE MAP NEWS….
We’ve recently embarked on a social media awareness campaign. This is the way of the world now and social media is where we can share our story (although I wasn’t expecting Texas to get on board so soon).
So, if you see “sponsored” posts from us you’ll know we are out there experimenting with the labyrinth of Facebook and Instagram and learning about algorithms!
Lewis is closer and closer to filling up all the white spaces on this huge piece of paper we have called home for 2 years, while Deborah works separately on many of the character illustrations that will be included. The devil is in the detail – well that is what I often say to Lewis as we delve into research for this building or that.
We have our tribe of followers that let us know about new buildings springing up and of course we keep our eye out constantly. The most recent building to attract our attention was the new stand at Flemington Racecourse. Luckily that section of the map was yet to be inked.
Below are some photos of the work in progress. You can see the progress we have made in the last 6 weeks comparing it to these photos.
PRODUCTION UPDATE…..
Reproduction remains our next BIG challenge. Because of the extraordinary detail and size of the original drawing we can’t just engage “any” scanner or photography method to do the job. We have trialed three different methods so far including a trip overseas this week (Queenscliff to Sorrento) and it looks like we will be heading to Sydney to a purpose built large scale scanner that can handle our size artwork.
Thanks to our amazing support base via a social media post we have been able to organize safe transportation of the map without the original artwork leaving our side.
The Sydney trip will take place sometime in September, which means we are “aiming” for the black & white printing in October. I avoid declaring deadlines out loud these days because we have passed a few already and this has caused angst for everyone. Concurrently we will be digitally colouring the original illustration and I will keep you updated of our progress and expected print dates of the colour map as soon as I know them.
There are variables with third parties prepping for the final prints but be assured we are pushing as hard as we can to transport The Melbourne Map out of our studio and onto your walls.
Speaking of your walls, I am having conversations with some framers to try and line up quality and affordable framing for the map in all her sizes. We encourage you to use your local framing supplier but will be able to guide you to some suppliers if you don’t already have one. More on that a bit further down the track.
Regular photos and updates are over at Facebook and Instagram so please join us there if you can.
Till next time….
Cheers
Melinda