Welcome to the Wonderful World of Sketchography
What the heckety heck is Sketchography?
Well, for that my friends I need to take you back, way back to 2018. My photography business was still pretty new and I had recently joined a business networking group run by Fife for Kids an organisation founded by two kick-ass mums who wanted to be able to find everything on offer for people under the age of 18 in Fife, in one place!
After a particularly good discussion and cake at one of these events I was packing up my stuff and Jess (one half of Fife for Kids and fellow cake addict) appeared looking quite twitchy. “I wondered if you’d be interested in an idea I have to combine photographs with my illustrations?”. Two things I should point out here. 1. As well as Fife for Kids, Jess is the owner/illustrator of The Ricketty Desk . 2. What I didn’t know until much later. She was really nervous about asking me. Not sure why because HECK YES I thought it sounded like a great idea! We agreed to meet over cake (obv.) to discuss further.
There was lots of cake (and meetings), model calls, refinements, customer testing, more cake…Until eventually Sketchography was born. A made-up word that sums up our two respective professions. Put together we have created an amazing experience that results in a bespoke piece of art that is uniquely yours. Not only that, it is ready to hang in your home on a fantastic quality gallery block from my professional lab that hand finishes every item.
Storybook
We started our Sketchography range with the Storybook Collection. A choice of 4 different scenarios that your little could be the star of.
This is Magical Woodland, we also offer Story Book Road for wannabe race drivers, Let them Eat Cake for birthday celebrations and Welcome to the World for Newborns.
I think these images are just adorable in your child’s bedroom or playroom.
Sketchography Experiences
Then we wanted to get really really bespoke. Fuelled by cake we brainstormed and came up with the Back to School Experience and the Family Crest Experience.
We both loved the idea of asking kids going back to a new school year questions like, ‘who is your best friend?’ and ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’. Jess does it with her own kiddos every year and it is fun to see how the answers change over the years.
We got the kids to complete a questionnaire. Which is a fun part of the experience thanks to Jess’s fab illustrations. And then they come to the studio in their stiff and uncomfortable new school uniform for a fun shoot! Then Jess works her magic based on the answers given and….
Could you imagine how much fun these would be going up the stairs of your house for each year? That would make me smile every time I had to use the stairs 🙂
That grew into something the whole family could do as fun experience together. Complete a questionnaire together, have a studio shoot and then end up with a Family Crest to hang on their wall that looks like…
And indeed here is this one is on the families wall.
What’s next for Sketchography?
I feel like I have been spoiled with my first collaboration as Jess is so easy to work with. I love this concept of combining both our passions and making truly one-off pieces of art for people. I thank the cake gods every day that she chose me as the photographer. There are loads more ideas percolating in both our brains so watch this space…
Just one more thing.
We’ve self-published a book! I know, right! We used the Sketchography method over lockdown to entertain people on our social media pages with Would You Rather questions. Like, Would you rather be chased by one zebra sized duck or 100 duck-sized zebras? So we have curated them all into a book. It’s daft, whimsey and a great idea as a Christmas gift! On sale now through The Ricketty Desk’s Etsy Store.
