6.2 - Summary and Self-Critique
Looking back at this term and assignment I feel as though because the idea that it was largely illustration-oriented, enabled me to explore and understand this medium of design in more depth. What I learned, was of the numerous number of approaches to illustrations and that everyone in this class has their own particular style. Some follow a very minimal approach to block colours, while others like textures and a great sense of depth. Working with one another and seeing each other work is what helped influenced my own style and I believe has inevitably helped define it for the future.
I was not only influenced by classmates, and over the course of this assignment, I discovered professional illustrators and designers whose style was similar to what I wanted to achieve. Illustrators such as Yunosuke were my main source of inspiration for all of my illustrations. His use of clean lines to draw realistic objects, individuals and ideas are creative and distinct, and his selection in things to draw played a big importance in the overall look of my much larger 'poster illustrations'. They avoid being too basic and generic and instead highlights the object in a creative perspective e.g. the Precinct35 Tote Bag which was placed as if on the shoulder of its owner.
A successful technique used throughout my brochure is my choice of colours. I wanted to avoid each page being drastically different from one another and so the consistent use of both the muted orange and dark navy was frequently reinforced in the following spread.
From a self-critique perspective, however, I feel as though I was perhaps too set on this specific look of clean lines and that my illustrations could have maybe been bolder in terms of them being more free-flowing and less ‘boxy’. What I mean by this, is that upon the final hand-in-day I saw several of my peers produce illustrations that spread across both pages. In hindsight, I really like this as it visually forces the reader to transition to the next page.
Finally, though, I also believe as though I was and have been able to develop my own stylistic approach in that I now have a greater interest in creating illustrations that combine a sense of both a cartoon-like aesthetic as well as realistic elements and techniques.
