Have you ever wondered how many meanings the word “balloon” can have?
and what the hell does “wearable balloon” mean?
Balloon is not just the classic balloon, or the balloon used in children’s parties.
No, in comics it has a specific meaning and I bet you all know exactly what I’m talking about: the comics, the reading we love at any age.
The term “balloon” is a real graphic sign used in comics to contain thoughts and phrases pronounced by the protagonists of the comic strip.
Do you know when you raise your eyes in the air while you are thinking? In the comic book those thoughts materialize and you read them on the page.
So if right now you’re reading me and you’re thinking “but what does she want to communicate to us?” here’s the balloon, the graphic cloud, the cartoon speech bubble, it could be above you with this thought, on the page of a comic book.
The balloons in comic books
The balloons in comics have different shapes, oval, round, cloud-shaped, rectangular, star-shaped.
They can be arranged in the center, to the side, top down.
The balloons follow the dynamics of thought.
They represent the sounds that are missing because the character has his/her mouth closed but also because the character lives on the page, they introduce in an atmosphere, they replace the sounds off-screen compared to the characters.
In short, the balloons perform the fundamental action of giving the word and staging the actions of the characters.
How can you use balloons in an illustration
The balloons follow the same trend as the western reading, from left to right, from the top of the page to the bottom of the page.
The balloons with a sharp edge usually shout a few phrases or a violent sound, a burst, a clash between cars, the speed of a character or a car or spaceship, while those with jagged edges are reserved for thoughts, doubts, reflections.
The balloons in contemporary art
One for all: Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, who legend has it that he copied the idea from an intuition of Andy Warhol, but we don’t know if it’s true.
The thoughts of the characters in his paintings are inside the balloons and describe the scene of the painting, reinforcing the message that the author intends to give to the public.
My custom balloons on Instagram
More than a month and a half ago, I began to create an illustration every day to accompany my thought.
These illustrations had a precise purpose: to tell stories.
Why did I want to do this?
Because the storytelling on Instagram had tired me out.
No private life shown to everyone, it’s not for me.
It’s enough to remind the world of my job.
I wanted to express with images and give a new strength to the image itself that was different, more explicit.
The balloon in this case, it wasn’t the classic comics speech bubble.
But the illustration provided narrative elements that accompanied the explanatory text of the post on Instagram.
Some of the texts were hidden in the body of the illustration, but they were mostly narrow, fast, not real narrative phrases.
The characters in my illustrations had their eyes closed and had no expression.
Everything had to lead back to a narrative that combined image and text.
The people who followed my account gradually understood perfectly what I wanted to tell.
The Instagram post had become a storyboard from which to start my narratives.
The balloon was the image of the post on Instagram, I had finally found a new way to express myself.
Wearable balloons
Inevitable to think about communicating these colorful thoughts on fabric.
I think and start designing a collection of wearable balloons.
The balloons become the scarves themselves in an imaginary cartoon created by me.
A colourful, silent humanity, thinking with eyes closed. Living with peace of mind in a parallel world made of flowers, bizarre stairs to climb, unusual and even funny trades, focused on delightful and improbable gardening work.
They are balloons that in the gentle and reassuring atmosphere, hide smiling skulls popping out of nowhere.
Scenes of comic life that remind us of the brevity of life but also the playfulness of Mexican decorations, which I love very much and put a little everywhere.
The dialogue is inside the fabric, between characters, animals, flowers and skulls.
They say without opening their mouths.
The balloons are the fabric itself.
Indomitable balloons have different sizes depending on the message they want to give.
Longer and narrower for a certain type of cartoon narration, wider and shorter for others.
What characterizes a wearable balloon?
Here in short are the main characteristics of my balloons:
- Very colorful, very POP
- Different shapes depending on the message
- People with closed eyes
- Presence of coloured skulls or animals or tools
- There’s always some element that disturbs the stillness of the image
- Have a solitary human character who expresses himself/herself in the pose or the dress he/she wears
- They’re smaller than all the other collections of scarves because They’re worn as fast as a comic book
- They have a real balloon Illustration in the package
- The actual story will be created by the collector, starting with the balloon that I will provide him/her
The wearable balloons collection
The first pieces are six.
But this collection will be enriched over time.
It’s a young, pop, contemporary and very ironic collection.
And at the same time it winks at a glorious past that starts from the Sixties with Pop Art, to go back to the first comics.
It is therefore a slightly nostalgic operation, adapted to our times.
In the package customers will find a real balloon that they will use for their own original comics.
In short, all you have to do is start playing and finding those hot summer days without homework and school with a comic book in front of which to fantasize about an adventurous life.
Even a wearable balloon can do this.
