Baking Designs from Scratch Using the Sun

In an era of AI, choose art. So much magic happens when you give yourself a chance to experiment. In a recent client project, I used Cyanotype printing to try and make a space background and it actually worked! I didn’t know if it would and that’s slightly nerve-wracking but as a designer it’s my job to find a unique solution. Cyanotype uses the sun and some chemical magic to make cool images with Prussian blue. All you need is special paper (or a chemical mix to paint on paper, fabric, or whatever). Take a peak below at the full process!

I foraged my cabinets for random materials that might give space vibes. This included beads, stickers, seeds, lentils, sprinkles, spices, flowers, and some sketches on tracing paper.

Now for the fun part! After baking in the sun for a bit, I washed the paper and let the paper dry. It was so cool to see how each item reacted. These tests were very informative because I could identify what materials looked the most starry/space-like.

Here I started dialing it down and only using the objects that looked the most like outer space. I did a few versions so I had multiple to choose from. I was also more strategic about placement knowing that text would be placed on these in the end.

Once the prints were dry, I photographed my favorites.

After messing around in Photoshop, this was the final result! I ended up making an animated version as well! I used a stop motion technique, slowly enlarging the image to give the effect of flying through space.

Here are a couple of the final graphics! What do you think?