PERSONAL PROJECTS | Lilakoszulinski

This page is dedicated to all my personal projects that I have been working on throughout the years. I started graphic design in my senior year of high school and have pretty much used it as a way to visualize and map out the construction of all of my art projects (digital or otherwise). The projects you see here are actually concept art of decorations that I designed and later create in real life for the holidays.

I started creating my own decorations when I noticed that the store bought ones were not becoming more and more simple in design and cheaper in materials every year. It came to the point where a simple sign wouldn't even last the season. And being an avid holiday decorator I just couldn't have that. So, I started the first installment of my decoration projects. A series of tombstones dedicated to the authors of the most iconic horror authors and their monsters.

I chose H.P Lovecraft, Edger Allen Poe, R.L Stein, Mary Shelly, and Bram Stoker as my inspirations for the contribution to the horror genre. I researched every article of media I could find on the authors' lives to accurately capture the aesthetic of their most iconic works of fiction. It took me 6 weeks to make these signs and I absolutely love how each one came out. I made sure each one was distinguishable from the others in their own way with different color pallets and unique call backs to the original creators content. These signs my have been from my early years as an artist (before I took painting lessons), but they have lasted me many years and have brought me great satisfaction every time I bring them out to display.

But as they say, "all good things must come to an end".... and that's when you start another set. It has been six years and after withstanding constant rain, cold winds, and being stored in a poorly insulated attic, my signs have now seen better days. So, I took this opportunity to revamp these old classics into more modern ones.

The first major thing I did to start the new series is add more tombstone to include the ones that didn't make the cut the first time around. In my earlier research I learned some of the classic horror monsters like the wolf man and the mummy were not made famous by books, but by movies. They were left out because my original plan was authors only. The second was to simplify the designs and go for a more theatrical, avant-garde look. I tried to focus more on the meaning of their stories rather than just the iconic stuff they are know for. As you can see I am still working on the final designs and going through many different versions yet, but hope to finish them before the spooky season comes around again.