Celtic Design Inspirations: the Letter A
Derdriu Celtic Names is a home-grown brand of personalized Irish language gifts developed in Ireland and sold on Derdriu Store (derdriustore.com). The motivation behind this work is to share appreciation for the Irish language, culture and history.
This short video gives some background to my designs and the influence of the Book of Kells:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVAU9KNCvNM
Design Inspirations:
All elements of the designs are original. The names are written in the Irish native language (Gaelic or Gaeilge), which has an alphabet of 18 letters. The lower-case letters are hand-drawn unical calligraphy, and the borders are hand-drawn Celtic knot-work with digital colorization. The capital letters are hand-drawn with digital colorization and are decorated with original cartoon-animal illustrations. The animal drawings are inspired by a combination of themes from Irish traditional myths and legends, cultural or religious influences, and are also a nod to the animal drawings which decorate the Book of Kells.
The following is an explanation of the specific inspiration for each letter decoration.
The letter A is decorated with a trinity knot and a salmon fish. For this I was inspired by the story of the Salmon of Knowledge (Bradán Feasa in Irish) from the Fenian Cycle of Irish Mythology. In this story the young Fionn mac Cumhail (Finn McCool) accidentally acquires all the wisdom of the universe by unintentionally eating a piece of the salmon of knowledge while he was preparing it for his master Finnegas. He burnt his thumb while cooking, and to soothe the pain of the blister he placed his thumb in his mouth, thereby consuming some of the fish.