Hello and thank you for joining me on the last of my 10 city guidebook designs! 10 of 10 – Mumbai!
This is it! The end of the infamously difficult Abstract Cities exercise! I won’t lie to you and say I am not happy to see the back of this exercise! BUT! moving on to the write up of my last design!
Again, my lack of geographical skills led me to question whether Mumbai was in Africa or India… India! (*eyeroll!) so I felt it best to do the normal and to search Pinterest for inspiration and ideas!
The most popular image that appeared was The Gateway to India. It reminded me a lot of the design that I had done for Marrakech, in my head I was conscious that I had to try and make this design look different.
Again, I tried to pick out important features from the building which I could include in an abstract way on my design. I didn’t want to draw the building as it is on the cover because that would not be portraying it in an abstract light. If I picked out key features and then simplified the design I could place key elements of the building on my cover.
The colours of Mumbai are very similar to that of Marrakech, India is very rich in colour. Purple is the best colour to represent wealth, richness and luxury. On the photo of The Gateway of India that I found on Pinterest, it showed water in the background inside the gateway. I had a look on an aerial photograph of this and it showed that the gateway is almost on water. I included this on the design going through the gateway as it appears on the photo but then travelling it across the cover to take the eye on a journey across the design. The yellow block represents the warm sun but also acts as the actual door or gateway. The 2 circles in my design appear on the photograph in the doorway, they are decorative on the actual gateway. I have taken them and split them up over the design to keep the eye interested in all areas of the design. There is a lot of negative space in this design which I like. The design is not constrained to the edges and it has plenty of room to breathe. The black squares which bleed out over the right hand side edge are windows that appear in one of the arched windows on the photograph. I have used them to add contrast and to give a level of interest to the design. The blue is the dominant colour in this design with the yellow following closely behind as a subordinate. The accent colour is the rich purple. The layout is the same as the other 9 designs I have done in this series. They are all in keeping with each other, the repetition is there.
When I think of Montreal I think of Canada and Canadian moose’s, Mounty’s and all things stereotypical!
Brushing my naive knowledge of Canada to one side I decided to do the usual search on Pinterest to get ideas and inspiration for this one!
What appeared and grabbed my attention more than most was the Habitat 67 development. This housing complex is abstract in itself! It met the brief and it seemed like the perfect choice to feature on my cover!
In March 2012, Habitat 67 won an online Lego Architecture poll and is a candidate to be added to the list of famous buildings that inspire a special replica Lego set. Lego bricks were actually used in the initial planning. Initial models of the project were built using Lego bricks and subsequent iterations were also built with Lego bricks.
I didn’t actually do a lot of sketching for this one because I knew I just wanted it to be comprised of blocks of colour to represent Habitat 67. I knew that I could develop it as I went along in Illustrator.
I started from the bottom of the design and added a pop of green for the accent colour which represents the tree at the bottom of the complex. I then wanted to work my way from the bottom left to the top right so that the eye flows naturally ad comfortably up and across the design. I wanted negative space so kept the bottom right free for this. I created several blocks of squares and rectangles with overlapping colours to best represent Habitat 67. I think this is the most abstract design in the 10 that I have done, it works put quite nicely because this is the city in my eyes with the most abstract landscape. I used different weights in the blocks and line to create a contrast. There is repetition in my design, I tried to replicate the appearance of each apartment of Habitat 67 as they appear in reality.
Welcome along to city guidebook number 7! – Marseilles or Marseille ?……..
Marseilles or Marseille was the first question that I asked myself! I pondered at the fact that there might b a typo in the Core Concepts design book because everywhere I looked online it was saying “Marseille” however there is a French and an English version! Marseilles it is!
In my head Marseilles is one of them luxuriously warm places that celebs and people likewise might go and sunbathe their perfectly tanned and toned bodies on the front of a yacht! CORRECT! 😀 but in all seriousness I pictured a lot of blue skies and blue sea, yellow sunshine and boats and yachts everywhere. As usual I started looking for ideas and inspiration on Pinterest.
A lot of blue! The other thing I noticed was the port with the church on the hill in the background. I felt I could incorporate this into my design somewhere along the way.
When I look at my design I feel a warm and happy feeling which is perfect for the weather and general feel of Marseilles. The blue represents the blue sky and sea. I have used a block of blue on the bottom left again as with all the other design guidebooks. It makes sure it is in keeping with the rest of the series but it also represents the sea. The rectangular blocks which work their way up to the top of the left hand side represent the hill and the buildings leading up to the 2 grey rectangular blocks at the top which is the church on the hill. On the right side of the design is the yacht or sailing boat with the sail mast. I have used yellow as a warm colour to contrast against the blues and greys. Blue is the dominant colour closely followed by thee subordinates which I believe to be the greys and turquoise. The accent colours in this piece which contrast against the rest of the design is the yellow and the brown of the sail mast.
You might notice the typos between the 2! My confusion with Marseille vs Marseilles! This is the final mock up for Marseilles! I am pleased with how it has turned out – It has kept the abstract brief, is open to interpretation but I think portrays what Marseilles is all about! The colours are accurate and there are contrasting accent colours thrown in there to make the design interesting. The layout is the same as the rest of the guidebooks to keep it as part of a series.
Hello and thank you for joining me here at guidebook design 6 of 10: Marrakech!
When I think of Marrakech I think of warm sunshine, a lot of warm colours – oranges, reds, yellows, terracotta… I think of souk markets and rich spices and rich, bright colours; purples, pinks..
I started off the same as usual by searching Pinterest for some inspiration. What I found matched the idea I had in my head. The colours were very warm. A lot of terracotta orange appears on the stonework of the buildings. The buildings all look like temples with the arched shapes doors and windows and the intricate patterned tiles and designs that feature on the buildings. I knew I wanted to include the arch designs and some of the intricate tile patterns. The buildings all look luxurious and rich. The ideal colour to represent this is purple.
The building that appeared the most was the above: Medersa Ben Youssef. This was a college but now acts as a historical site. I liked the symmetrical design, the arches and the intricately detailed tiles that appear on the walls. I knew that I would try and replicate this in an abstract style for my cover. I had the idea to include the arch into the design, a diamond pattern to represent the tiles and maybe some blocks to represent the water at the front of the building.
I overlapped 2 arch shapes with a different tint of terracotta. I chose a terracotta colour for the building to match what I found in my research findings. The arch designs also overlap the type on the left side which matches the rest of the designs for the other guidebooks I have done so far. Following the rule of 3 or thirds, I tried to split my cover into 3 again to get different design elements in each third. The 2 lines at the bottom represent the water at the front of the building and they also add some contrast against the warm colours. The diamond tile pattern I drew and split up across the negative space on the right side. I did not want to overwhelm the design and wanted to maintain as much negative space as I could. I have used purple to highlight wealth and luxury and a bright accent of yellow to again bring contrast but to also represent the bright colours that might appear on the buildings, the tiles, in the souk markets or in the spices. I think the eye flows naturally throughout this design with the diamond shapes adding a level of interest and also bringing the design to a close.
This is the final mock up for Marrakech. I am happy with it! It has kept the same layout as all the other guidebook designs I have done so far, it is keeping with the others and looks a part of the series. I have kept the abstract approach but again, it is open to interpretation but is obvious what it is portraying. The colours match what you would find in Marrakech but also contrast and work well together for the purpose of this brief. The terracotta is the dominant, the blue is the subordinate and the yellow adds a contrasting accent colour trying to fight with the blue for attention.
Welcome to the concrete jungle! – Design 5 of 10 – Manhattan!
Manhattan was one of the easiest cities to think of and find ideas for. It is a place full of buildings and architecture so tying this one in with the rest of the designs was easy. I began thinking of famous and iconic buildings in Manhattan; the Empire State Building being one of them. I then went to Pinterest to see what other images came up. There was a lot of images of the hustle and bustle of the city… skyscrapers, shops, people, yellow taxis, cars and pedestrian crossings.
I knew I wanted to play with the idea of the Empire state building and the fact that Manhattan and New York is like a concrete jungle. Central park played a part in my thoughts and ideas; I wanted to include a bit of nature in my design – this also allows the opportunity to bring some green into my design which would be a great contrast against the skyline of Manhattan.
I used a block of yellow on the bottom left, once again this ties in with the rest of my designs so far. This yellow block represents a yellow New York taxi. The grey blocks that feature on it are the wheels and the top of the taxi. I placed a tiny block of colour at the top left also to add some interest and to draw the eye up to the top to work its way around the design. Yellow and black contrast each other brilliantly and they also represent the yellow cabs and the pedestrian crossings. The Empire state building I portrayed on the right side of the cover. I used blocks of black rectangles to represent this. It is abstract and can be portrayed in any way you want to; it could be the black lines on a pedestrian crossing or it could be the towers of the Empire State building.
In this design I feel the black and yellow equally fight with each other for attention, they are both very dominant in the design. The grey adds a little accent of colour to break it up.
This is the final mock up for Manhattan. I am pleased with this design, the colours work and contrast each other fantastic! It is modern and stands out and it maintains an abstract approach but it is still obvious as to what is being portrayed. The layout stays in keeping with the rest of the designs.
Hello again for design 4/10 of my abstract city guidebooks!- Manchester!
I love visiting Manchester whenever I can so I wanted to do this one a little justice! Manchester was the heart of the Industrial Revolution in England and is still known for its community spirit and hard work ethic.
For all of the designs so far I have been quite modern in approach by designing for iconic buildings that are quite modern and new.. I knew that this would not be the case for Manchester. Manchester is renowned for its red brick buildings, the stonework, factories, chimneys, railways, railways viaducts, canals and the cotton industry. The colour scheme for Manchester would be reds, greys, stone and browns. With all this mind I went to Pinterest again for some inspiration, my initial thoughts were to go with the chimney idea but then when I found an image of a canal and a viaduct bridge I knew that this was the route I wanted to go down. When I drive to Manchester I drive under loads of them viaduct bridges; that is how you know you are getting closer to Manchester! In my head this seemed the right choice to choose.
I started doing the same as I had done for all the others; printed a copy of this out and then started to sketch the from it, simplifying it each time I drew it.
This photograph reminded me of the image the OCA used in our Core Concepts unit book to explain to us this brief:
The canal boat on the Manchester viaduct photograph is very similar to this image. I realised I could replicate the canal boat in a similar way.
I did do a lot more sketches for this guidebook, however I did them when I was in my full time job at a time when I had a 5 minute window in-between jobs.. for whatever reason they got mislaid!
However, I developed a few ideas in Illustrator and eventually arrived at this one!
I have kept the same layout again as all of the others to keep them as part of a series. Again, breaking Manchester up into its syllables and using Helvetica. The idea of this was to use a main block of red on the bottom left, again in keeping with the other designs so far. This red block represents the infamous red brick in Manchester. Instead of drawing the viaduct bridge to look like a bridge I have in an abstract form used only the arches of the bridge to create the illusion of it. I have used different hues of brown from dark to light to represent the dark brick and industrial stonework. The blue squares add contrast and also help draw your eye across the whole piece. These blue squares represent the water; they represent when the sun sparkles on water and creates sparkling ripples. I have used different sized blocks again for contrast, to represent abstract and to add interest to the design. I wanted the eye to travel from left to right to the bottom with this design; that is why I have placed the abstract block canal boat along the bottom right. The red is the paintwork and the top of the boat with the black blocks being the windows. I was conscious again of placing objects along the edges of the design; the design needed to be able to breathe and to not be constrained to a box. In this design the red is definitely the dominant colour with the browns following as subordinate colours. They are warm so needed a cool colour to contrast against them. The blue is the accent colour, it is fighting for attention with the dominant.
This is the final mock up for Manchester. I am pleased with how it has turned out, I think it is abstract and open to interpretation as to what is being showed but still obvious what is trying to be portrayed.
Hello! and thanks for dropping by to look at design 3/10 of my abstract city guidebooks- Managua!
I personally had absolutely no idea where this city was! (I am still confused! – but I do know it is on the bit that joins both Americas together!!) with my poor knowledge of geography I attempted to gloss over this and continue with my design ideas. Again, I wanted to keep the design concept and layout etc for this guidebook cover the same as the others so that it continues to form the series.. I was going in again simplistic and minimalist in approach, using architecture and iconic buildings as the basis of my design and taking key elements away to create my design.
I started my initial research using Pinterest again; I looked up iconic landscapes and architecture in Managua and it came up with the cathedral as the main recognisable building of the city.
From first glance it looked like a complicated building to try and recreate in abstract! I took the same approach as last time and printed out this image tracing over it again and again simplifying it each time until I was left with the bare bones.
The main key features that stood out to me from the photograph was the intricately detailed stonework of the cathedral, the small cross that features in the middle of the cathedral on top of one of the triangular brickwork and the fact that the cathedral is in beautiful warm weather with 2 palm trees either side of it!
I used my rough sketches to figure out what to include in my final design.
Again, I wanted to try and stick to the rules of thirds for my design and split the design into 3 sections on the cover. I wanted again to let the eye flow naturally across the whole page. Negative space once again played a big factor into the design, I actually base the design around the negative space each time. I placed a lot of the design to the edge of the page which can sometimes constrain the design to a “box” and restrict the design to be able to “breathe”; however, I still allowed for the design to “breathe” by not constraining the design all of the way around the cover. I added a tiny accent of green at the top left side just to give the eye somewhere else to hop to. The idea was for the eye to flow naturally all the way around the design. The bottom green blocks were representative of the 2 palm trees which I have obviously exaggerated and under exaggerated in size – representative of abstract also. The design is not accurate in scale, size or orientation to the building; the grey ovals on the right edge are representative of the arched windows in the centre of the cathedral and the bottom bar and grey small rectangles are a snippet of the pillars that hold the cathedral to the ground and the steps at the bottom. The cross I have kept small, it is always good to have contrast between elements on a design; the eye is drawn more to the cross and its location in the negative space on the cover- it is representative really to how small it is within the great vastness of the cathedral.
The dominant colours on this design accidentally are the black and grey of the text and the arched windows.. I know black and grey are tints but to me they draw me to the design before any of the other colours. The subordinate colour needs to be the green, although to be honest the blue stands out just as much as the green. It probably doesn’t help that these 2 colours are both cool and don’t particularly contrast each other well. As for accent colours… I would say I have designed something that doesn’t have a accent colour as such. In hindsight now looking back I could have added a contrasting colour as a tiny accent to the piece but I honestly just liked the use of these 3 minimalistic colours.
This is the final mock up of Managua! Overall, (apart from I mentioned that I could have used a warmer colour as an accent) I am happy with this design. I think I have met the abstract needs of the brief.
Welcome back to design 2/10 city guidebooks! – Malmo!
I was more aware of time (or lack of!) after completing design 1: Madrid, these guidebooks are time consuming! I decided I needed to try and cut down the research part of things although this first stage is crucial to achieving winning over a brilliant design outcome . I always start my research by searching Pinterest, it is the best place to find and record inspiration I find.
I had never heard of Malmo but after looking at some photos of the place and reading about it online, it now seems like a nice place to visit! I learned that Malmo is a modern coastal city in Sweden. I wanted to follow in the footsteps of Madrid by basing it around architecture and landscapes so I searched Pinterest to see what landmarks stand out in Malmo.
The most intriguing building that I found in Malmo was “The Turning Torso” it is regarded as the first “twisted skyscraper” in the world. It was designed by spanish architect, structural engineer, sculptor and painter Santiago Calatrava. It officially opened on the 27th August 2005 and reaches a height of 190 metres with 54 storeys and 147 apartments within it. In August 2015 the Turning Torso was the winner of the 10 year award from the Council on Tall buildings and urban Habitat. It also won the 2005 Gold Emporis Skyscraper Award.
With the brief in mind I knew that I had to keep my design abstract, I was conscious that I didn’t want to make the design too pictorial and obvious as to what it was. I didn’t want to draw the Turning Torso onto my design and it be obvious what it was! The way I went about designing was to take a photograph of the Turning Torso and trace around it several times, each time taking something away so that I was finally left with the bare bones of the building. I then took the whole drawing apart and found clever ways to piece it back together but in an abstract way!
Sketchbook pages: First sketches and ideas
This is the photograph I found on Pinterest, I printed it out and I based my sketches off it:
What I ended up with was a simplified sketch – the minimalistic “bones” of the building:
From this drawing it is still obvious what the building is, I took key parts of the building and simplified it down to its simplest recognisable form. This formed the basis of my final design.
In my final design I kept the same layout as I did with Madrid as I felt that this would make the guidebooks become part of a series and be obvious that they all belonged together. I wanted to use quite “earthy” “beachy” natural colours because Malmo is a coastal town. I used blue for the Turning Torso which reflects the sky and sea and the fact that this tall building is between the two! I used a natural pop of green and yellow which would reflect sun and sand… Yellow being nice and warm also contrasts against the cool blue and green. I wanted to keep the design simple – I decided to split my design into thirds (rule of 1/3s!) and split the design up into each section. This lets the eye flow naturally and easily across the whole design. The yellow boxes allow for a pop of colour, add interest to draw the eye right to the end of the design but also represent the windows of the Turning Torso. The only flaw in my design is that I enlarged the Turning Torso to only show the lower half and a segment of the top… you can’t actually see the “turning” aspect. However, going down the route of keeping it very much abstract and not too obvious, I still really like this design and I think that you would still be able to recognise what the structure is from the key elements I’ve picked out even though they have been moved around and enlarged slightly. Negative space to me is just as much part of the design as everything else so I was adamant I wanted to keep a lot of space around the design but also to not restrict the design too much to its edges. I wanted it as a whole to remain “breathable”.
The location and how I designed the typography of “Malmo” was just as important as the rest of the design. I really toyed with the type layout again and kept questioning myself as to whether it was the right decision to make; I wanted to do something different and for it to look quite modern and edgy. Splitting Malmo into syllables also forces the eye to follow over to the other side of the design to see what the rest of the design is about.
This is the final mock-up of my Malmo guidebook! I am pleased with how it has turned out, I met my own expectations of how I wanted it to be and look like. The dominant colour used on this design is definitely the blue followed by the yellow being next in line as the subordinate colour. The green is fighting against the blue for attention which is exactly what the accent colour should be doing.
I started off feeling really overwhelmed by this exercise. As I mentioned in my introductory post, this exercise is notoriously difficult and challenging for many students and with this in the back of my mind I subconsciously was a little bit apprehensive about it! I started off with the first city on the list which was Madrid; A nice little start to the exercise as I am familiar with Spain even though I have never visited Madrid itself. I decided to mind map Madrid and see where my trail of thoughts led me…
Mind Mapping
I have to admit I did have a stalk on google of what some other students had done for this assignment.. the general outcome for this exercise was based around architectural buildings of the cities or famous landmarks which is completely understandable as the obvious outcome for “coloured blocks” would be buildings. I wanted however to try a different approach and see where that took me.
First Ideas
When I think of Spain in general I think of warmth and warm Reds, Yellows, Oranges, Black, busy, colourful, music, wine drinking, Tapas eating and a chilled way of life. Red, Yellow and Black features in the Spanish flag so I knew I had to use these colours within the design. Socialising, eating and drinking out is a big part of Spanish culture, especially having a drink and tapas in the afternoons or evenings so I wanted to convey this feeling throughout my design. I started to research on Google and Pinterest the different hotspots of places to eat in Madrid. The place which kept coming up the most was Caja Bava which is a brightly coloured street filled with Tapas bars. I collected several images of this street which I documented within my sketchbook and also pinned on Pinterest. I even watched a video of a short tour of the street just to get a feel for what it look like and the vibes it gives out.
These were also a few of the images which inspired me the most:
Colour Palettes
I had no idea what design I might create but I knew I would have to work out some kind of colour scheme, this is what I worked on next.
I used the photos that inspired me the most and in Photoshop using the eyedropper tool I picked out the colours that were most prominent in the photos. These would form a base for my colour palette.
The above screenshots were the palettes that I created from these colours. I then decided to print all of the palettes out and arrange them all onto one sheet to pick out the main colours that could be used; I wanted to organise them into dominant, subordinate and accent colours. I had a little bit of help from my boyfriends cat Bridgette with this!…
The above colours were the ones that I narrowed down. I feel that they reflect the vibes, buildings, warmth and atmosphere of Spain and Madrid. After organising them in an order where I could see what colours worked with each other I then went on to think about the first design and how I would feature the abstract blocks of colour into my design…
Research points
I looked at a wide range of research points for this first design, I was really unsure of where to turn with the “abstract coloured blocks” I did an extensive browse on Pinterest (link below) where I created several folders filled with different images and I also looked up various abstract art and artists. As I said in my previous post I had help from one of my art teacher friends who directed me to a few artists to look into.
I found that researching into Henry Matisse was the most beneficial. Matisse towards the end of his life created art form cut out shapes which he then made into collages and blocks of colour. I did not think originally that these could be classed as blocks of colour but the more I researched into the artist I realised that he was quite renowned for his work related to colour.
The paper cut outs by Henry Matisse.
Matisse cut out a lot of leaf shapes from paper and used them to create abstract pieces – These were still considered as blocks of colour and it inspired me to think about creating simplistic shapes from objects that exist of one block colour and then make them abstract.
Development of Ideas
I started firstly to design and develop ideas down the food route; As I wrote further up my post, I wanted to explore around Spanish food as it is a big part of Spanish culture. I wanted to convey the bright colours, the exciting food itself, the social aspect and the busy yet laid back Mediterranean lifestyle.
In my sketchbook I drew some initial sketches of some Tapas food just to give me a feel for what I could potentially include on a design.. I ended up really liking these little sketches and went on to create digital versions of them to try out on my digital designs;
I created coloured sketches of Tapas food – Olives, Cheese, Tomatoes, Ham, Peppers, Chillis and Calamari. Calamari sandwiches are a massive deal in Madrid.
Digital Development
Development Idea 1
I started to rearrange the digital drawings of my food in different ways to try and form an abstract design with coloured blocks.. It was tricky! – I concentrated mostly around the calamari illustration; Calamari sandwiches are a delicacy in Madrid! They are a pretty big deal! I situated the Calamari illustrations between coloured blocks to try and get an abstract representation of Calamari in bread or a bread roll/bap. All in all I just felt that it was too “busy” and not quite abstract enough for my liking. I really struggled to interpret food as coloured blocks.. I hated to admit defeat as I really wanted to take a different direction from everyone else, however, landscapes and buildings are best interpreted as coloured blocks. I did a few more experimental layouts for my food idea and then swiftly moved on to try and rework the whole exercise out again.
Back to the drawing board!
Development Idea 2
What I created next was completely accidental and out of sheer boredom and frustration with the exercise at the time! – I sat at my laptop screen on Illustrator and just drew random lines all over the place in a complete daydream and loss at what I was doing! By the time I had finished I could see a resemblance to the Kio Towers (leaning towers of Madrid) and then I gradually started to bring other influences in to it…
This started to look like the Kio Towers (the leaning towers of Madrid!)
I then added in the statue of Calvo Sotelo which is situated between the Kio Towers!
The towers together also look like an “M” for Madrid
The 3 elements all joined together!
I then added in the last feature… it looks like a Spanish bull with its horns coming out the top of the design.
All of the elements together to create this abstract piece!
I liked the geometric, modern feel of the abstract architectural illustration.
What I ended up designing was this above; I still really liked my little drawings of the food and was trying to find ways still to incorporate them into the design. I decided to use them below “Madrid” as a colour key for the piece; The colour of each food is a colour that featured on my original colour chart and which I have also used on the above abstract design. I did think that the food icons could also technically be classed as the blocks of colour. The colours are very “Spanish” in feel with the Red and Yellow but I have added contrasting colours in there with the Pink and Blue.
I wanted the typeface for “Madrid” to be simplistic. I knew I wanted it to be a sans-serif font as these are always the best for legibility, readability and best suited for titles and headings. I don’t really like using fonts or typefaces that are gimmicky or that are not well established, therefore I did question myself about choosing a typeface that I was unfamiliar with.. however, the one I chose (Leelawadee) did seem quite appealing and attractive for the piece. The only issue I had with the whole design was that the typography did not match the “abstract” feel; in fact I still felt that the whole piece wasn’t edgy or abstract enough. The blocks of colour that I used seemed flat, it seemed as if I was just colouring in blocks for the sake of making them a colour. I think I had too many colours, my thought process moving on from this stage was to potentially limit the amount of colours to possibly 3. I could pick 3 colours that have strong relations to the country (e.g. the country’s flag colours). For Madrid it would be yellow, red and Black.
Development Idea 3
I tried the design again but this time around tried not to play “too safe”. I wanted to experiment more with the typography and the layout (although not too much!.. I chose good ol Helvetica again for the font!) I had the idea to break Madrid up into its syllables and rearrange them coming slightly off the page.
The above screenshots show how the development progressed.. I much prefer this idea. I messed around with the orientation of “Madrid” at the end of my experimenting I found that Madrid should be written facing the spine and not the pages. It has more impact when you look at it, it stands out and it looks more abstract in design even though there is still a strong geometric influence to it. I have added the red bars in the design because they help to frame the overall design and give it structure. The red boxes are focal points that draw your attention to the design. I made one much smaller and thicker than the other for contrast. I feel in general the design is comfortable to look at; the eye flows comfortably throughout it. I then had to develop it further to get the coloured blocks into the design.
I developed it further (above) experimenting with outlines on the text and contrast of the typography with line weight and thickness. I started to add colour to the blocks. I also outlined the shape of the abstract bull which ties in nicely to Madrid and Spain as a country. The colours I have used are Red and yellow with Black and white added in. The Red and yellow I overlapped and lowered the opacity to mix the colours to create an orange hue. The middle bottom design stands out the most for me.. it has contrast with the typography (Bold vs. regular, black vs. white, big vs. small), the overall layout is more abstract, the bull line work ties in nicely to the city and country and the colours all contrast and compliment each other and are blocks. (yellow=dominant, orange= subordinate and the light pinky red and bold red are accents)…
….
However, I still felt like it was “too busy” the line work took away the “block” aspect of the brief. I wanted to keep the design as simplistic as possible, so I went about developing it even further.
This is what my final design looks like! I simplified it right down to the basic shapes which I think helps you to recognise the landmarks in the design better. I added accent colours in each corner to draw the eye and attention over the whole design.
“Once I get the first one designed and finished, the others should flow quite easily”
Amy Holmes – This was said to her boyfriend after almost ripping her hair out from trying to find an outcome for 1/10 guidebooks! 😀
Exactly what I said above! I knew that this exercise was notoriously difficult and that after I had the first one designed the other 9 should flow and follow the same design thought process and layout etc.. This was true, the others flowed along quite nicely afterwards with the exception of hitting a few “brick walls” along the way.
Take a look at my other 9 posts to see the final designs for each city!
pinkangeleno.com 