Kwikspell Correspondence Course – my own design

L

Loxias Munch

New Member
I was fascinated and intrigued by the Kwikspell Correspondence Courses ever since I read about them in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets".

The props department of the movie "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" made a paper prop for the Kwikspell Correspondence Courses in Beginners' Magic. You can view some of the screen caps for this prop here:
http://www.therpf.com/f9/harry-potter-props-noob-37424/#post487372

RPF user PhoenixVader has made a replica of this prop available here:
http://www.therpf.com/f64/harry-potter-free-paper-props-all-movies-108986/index65.html#post1726175

Yet the design made for the HP movie didn't convince me, so I decided to come up with my own design.

First, let's review what we know about the Kwikspell Company and the Courses they offer. This is the excerpt from book 2 about the Kwikspell Course:

There was only one thing on it apart from his half-completed form: a large, glossy, purple envelope with silver lettering on the front. With a quick glance at the door to check that Filch wasn't on his way back, Harry picked up the envelope and read: Kwikspell A Correspondence Course in Beginners' Magic.

Intrigued, Harry flicked the envelope open and pulled out the sheat of parchment inside. More curly silver writing on the front page said: Feel out of step in the world of modern magic? Find yourself making excuses not to perform simple spells? Ever been taunted for your woeful wandwork? There is an answer! Kwikspell is an all-new, fail-safe, quick-result, easy-learn course. Hundreds of witches and wizards have benefited from the Kwikspell method! Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: "I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke! Now, after a Kwikspell course, I am the center of attention at parties and friends beg for the recipe of my Scintillation Solution!" Warlock D. J. Prod of Didsbury says: "My wife used to sneer at my feeble charms, but one month into your fabulous Kwikspell course and I succeeded in turning her into a yak! Thank you, Kwikspell!"

Fascinated, Harry thumbed through the rest of the envelope's contents. Why on earth did Filch want a Kwikspell course? Did this mean he wasn't a proper wizard? Harry was just reading "Lesson One: Holding Your Wand (Some Useful Tips)" when shuffling footsteps outside told him Filch was coming back. Stuffing the parchment back into the envelope, Harry threw it back onto the desk just as the door opened.
Click to expand...
Two things intrigued me about the Kwikspell cours Harry found:

  1. It came in a rather luxurious packaging, far too luxurious for a correspondence course, even in the wizarding world of Harry Potter.
  2. It came with a parchment that reads like a sales letter to me: "Feel out of step in the world of modern magic? Find yourself making excuses not to perform simple spells?", etc. Why would anyone who already enrolled in the course bother with testimonies about the course's effectiveness?

So I came up with the following hypothesis to explain those two things:

  • The Kwikspell Company advertises its courses in various magazines and newspapers (Quibbler, Daily Prophet, etc.).
  • Filch read such an advert and inquired about the Correspondence Course in Beginners' Magic.
  • Subsequently, the Kwikspell Company sent Filch a free sample course: Lesson one accompanied by an introductory letter praising the ease and effectiveness of the course. This came in an envelope designed to draw attention, a marketing technique known even in the Muggle's world.
  • This is the envelope Harry found in Filch's office.

Armed with this knowledge, I decided to design my own Kwikspell Correspondence Course. I wanted a course that had content, but it was impossible for me to write about "beginner's magic". Thus I chose a different subject: magic runes reading – based on a set of casting stones designed by Susan Sheppard for divinatory purposes.

Each lesson would be printed recto-verso on a sheet of A4 paper folded in half to obtain a 4 page A5 booklet. Attached to the first (free sample) lesson there would be an introductory card in A6 format with some sales text on the front and the enrolment form for the remaining lessons on the back.

Each lesson would come with an assignment printed on a separate sheet of paper. The student would have to fill in and send back the assignment to the course tutor to receive the next lesson by owl post. The assignment would be folded in an uncommon way, remnant the OWL exam paper but in a much simpler way.

Finally, students who completed all the assignments would receive a Certificate of Completion as a proof that they completed the course successfully.

So here are my designs for all of these items.

kwikspell_course_in_magic_runes_reading_by_loxiasmunch-d5pjs32.png


You can see the items in detail in the attachments to this post

  1. The Introductory card – front and back.
  2. The four lessons in Magic Runes Reading.
  3. The four assignment papers. On the inside, a star shaped silver sticker is applied in the center. Once folded, the paper is held in closed state by a round silver sticker.
  4. The Certificate of Completion – a star shaped silver sticker is applied along the bottom border right in the middle. There is also a silver wax seal with a feather shape above two black ribbons applied to the Certificate to confer it legitimacy.

I hope you enjoy these designs.
 
Superb!

With so many replicas of the more common HP props it is always nice to see an original creation done for the HP world.

Great research on the project, it does have that HP feel to it. Love the folding job on the assignments sheet.

bfd
 
The original post is almost 2 years done by a member with 1 post...call me crazy but I'm pretty sure they have moved on and we won't be seeing them again.

bfd
 
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