Last time we heard from Sam Osborne, she was creating some fantastic poster prints, based on famous quotes from former F1 champions. Now, inspired by the upcoming 2012 season, Sam introduces her preview prints, plus a handy little "fill-in-able" souvenir book to be your companion for the year ahead.

As a designer I love to collect prints and posters from all over the place, from bands, films and sports I love, but looking at my collection I noticed a distinct lack of artwork from the world of motorsport, particularly from recent years. This is unusual given my slightly nerdy obsession with all things car and bikes.

The truth is I just haven't seen anything I liked so, as a designer, I decided that I would create some artwork for the 2012 season that would sit with the posters I already had. Of course racing posters from the 60s and earlier were a huge source of inspiration but I wanted mine to be cleaner, more simple and possibly more useful. Something to refer to during the season as well as look back on in future years.

In great shape

The shape of each track has always intrigued me, some I remember from computer games I had as a kid and some are very new to me but they each have their own character somehow. So this is where I started; taking the shapes of the tracks and filling them with cropped, chopped and twisted versions of the host country's flag. All the time I was playing a game with myself to see if I could name the tracks just from their shape (something I've got pretty good at while putting this together!). This, combined with a simple calendar of all races and printed in a single colour, creates a strong image that not only looks great, it's also a useful reference for the season.

A little bit more

I was happy with the poster but wanted to do something a bit more interactive and fun. I'd done a print for the rugby world cup and I was looking to do a wallchart - the kind you fill in - for the European football championship and wondered if it was possible to create something like that but for the full F1 season. It became obvious quite quickly that it needed more than a single side of paper so adding this to the poster was out, but I couldn't shake the idea. I love the fact that sport is full of stats so I was sure that keeping a log of some of these would appeal to other F1 fans as well.

So it became a book, designed to match the poster and full of things to fill in, chances to show off your knowledge and facts and stats to learn! From the pre-season section that includes a place for your predictions through each race and ending with a season round-up, quiz and chance to design your own race helmet, there is something for everyone.

It's been great fun putting this together, I've learnt loads and I am genuinely excited about this coming season. I'll be filling my book in and I hope you will too! You can find out more about the prints and the book over on Etsy, or more about me at Sam-Osborne.co.uk.