This was run as a concept art project with the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, with the client wanting to implement a return of fairy doors into the fairy wood across 4 different gardens in Scotland.
The project had a complicated beginning. We first designed a character, then we designed a backstory for somebody else's character, then chose a new set of character and backstory to take forward and actually design the door for. The original direction was that the fairy would have a jet pack to boost it's flying abilities. The backstory created for it was that it would be a collector for its tribe, with birds being the main predator and the jet pack being the way in which they avoid it. It was at this point it was handed to me, and I began looking to create ideas for the door design, mainly focusing around launch pads for the jet pack, and fake doors at a way of getting past the problem of birds.
I experienced a severe case of designers block in the jet pack direction, so therefore I decided to redesign the character to something I could work with. I instead decided that he would be just a regular fairy, a hero collector amongst the tribe he was a part of, however a bird attack left him wingless in the wild, after he was distracted from collecting by a squirrel. From this, he became a survivor. Living off of the land, he became a lone wolf.
Once I had the new character and backstory set out I thought about where this door was going, where this fairy might be to keep to himself and what environment he would be in. Upon a visit to the Gardens, and a meeting with the clients, I came across a Gooseberry bush which inspired me. The thorns on the arching branches provided an excellent cover for anything within the confinements of it. Therefore, I decided to have the door set within this plant. I then looked into how it would work being in this confinements, and decided for the sake of the fairies personality it would work best with an underground lair. This also helps longevity, as the arches of the bush all root into the ground and grow into new bushes, therefore putting it within the bush would mean the fairy would have to continuously have recreate his home within the new rooted ends, therefore an underground lair will make things much easier.
From that point it was onto the final build. Based on the properties of the material I chose to use marine plywood. This material was the most durable choice in the environment it will be in. I also decided to use a ground anchor to keep the door in the ground, this way, along with the thorns on the bush, it will be safe from theft by kids who visit the gardens.
On the 19th of October the project came to a close, and on the 2nd of November the exhibition at the Botanics opened to the public. I was honoured to be able to provide the press quote on behalf of my classmates, and the exhibition was an overall the success. The doors will go out into their new homes early 2018.
