Everyday Architecture
The Making of
When you think of Dundee the same old landmarks and building come to mind that are the ‘poster children’ of the city. But what about the buildings you pass every day that you never give a second thought to? Well, we’ve selected 10 under appreciated buildings across the city that have great back stories and that are truly beautiful in their own way.
All the illustrations you see within the Everyday Architecture collection were created as part of a colouring book for DDF21. Local photographer Kathryn Rattray spent time wandering Dundee, visiting the special and interesting places suggested by local
people. We had lots of great suggestions, but only had space for a collection of 10, so not everything made it.
We found the work of illustrator Dana Ulama online and felt that her bold approach to line and colour would be perfect for showcasing these buildings in a new way. Kathryn took multiple photos of the buildings, this allowed Dana to build up an image of the building and create the illustration – it’s not just a case of tracing the photo. We wanted to make sure that Dana had enough photographs to notice the ordinary things and make them extraordinary. You can see in this example of Bell Street Car Park, how Dana spotted the greenery in Kathryn’s photo, and then made more of a feature of it in the illustration, really bringing it to life through her drawing.
You can see the whole of Dana’s process through this time-lapse video taking Kathryn’s photo through to a full colour illustration used for the cover of the colouring book.
Illustration by Dana Ulama
Photography by Kathryn Rattray