Informative Illustration

For my informative illustration I decided to create a map for the Sir Walter Tyrrell Pub in the new forest located next to Rufus Stone, the place where King William was supposedly hit and killed by Sir Walter Tyrell’s arrow, it is a well known landmark in the forest therefore it attracts alot of customers to the pub, as my project is based on preserving and promoting the New Forest I wanted this design to have a contemporary aesthetic to give the forest a fresh and modern look while on the other hand I wanted to preserve the nostalgia of the New Forest. Having visited the pub on many occasions I feel that the main customers are dog walkers and families perhaps on walks or just stopping by after visiting Rufus Stone.

The map features on a Postcard format that would be available to pick up for free in the pub and surrounding attractions so people who visit the pub themselves would take a copy and introduce the Sir Walter Tyrrell to friends and family through this medium. This allows me to attract similar people to the pub’s already established target market as opposed to looking for customers elsewhere, this is to bring in more customers whilst keeping the family atmosphere and animal friendly feel to the pub alive.

I decided to keep the map relatively simple, only showing how to get there from the M27 so not to patronize New Forest regulars or to make them alienated. The map shows a few nearby locations like, Cadnam, Stoney Cross, Fritham and nearby well known village Lyndhurst. The illustration has a decorative look to it because at the same time as explaining how to find the pub I am promoting it and it needs to look attractive and warm to potential customers, also it doubles up as a postcard so it needs to be recognisable in that format.

I started this design by creating a background using old paper layered up combined with an old photograph of Rufus Stone in its original state. On Photoshop I reduced the brightness and contrast to make it effective as a background, my first design shows a line drawing of the pub with a small map coming off of it, I then added sections of photo to the drawing.Next I digitally incorporated a watercolour collage I had created of a tree with coins on the branches showing, I believe, King William. I made some negative space using triangles cutting out from the background and also revealing the white parts of the building.

Having had a tutorial with Matthew Richardson and Sharon I was told that the image was going in the right direction but that the watercolour collage was too distracting of the purpose of the image and the map itself could do with some improvement. I decided to start again only keeping the initial pub drawing and the background. I researched some interesting british map designs which gave me inspiration to put some new life into my fairly simple map. I made the paper look old and burnt some holes in it to show age, I think this shows good contrast to the quite contemporary image of the pub. The burnt holes create good negative space taken away from the background replacing the purpose of the triangles in my previous design. After adding a pint of beer to the design I decided to remove a strip of background to reveal the white parts of the building and the head of the beer. At this point I still didn’t feel there was enough negative space in the design so i cut out masks on photoshop from photographs of a New Forest tree and a horse.

I think the text is successful in the design and works well on the scale it would be printed on, my only concern is that the design has too much going on but I realise that is only the case when it is viewed on a large scale. Overall I feel it is a successful image and serves it’s purpose of explaining how to get to the Sir Walter Tyrrell Pub and works well as a postcard and is initially aesthetically pleasing in order to attract a customer to pick it up.