Here are the two infographics I created for my illustration project:
Here is my illustration project report:
Audience/Purpose: describe the intended audience of your illustration(s); what are you trying to communicate to this audience?
The intended audience of my illustrations are young millennials and Gen Z, aged around 18-25. At this young, ripe age of adulthood it is common for one to have some sense of freedom, whether that be moved out of the house or living away from home at college. With this independence often comes the desire to travel and explore; without experience this can quickly become daunting. My goal with this project and my other projects is to in some way make traveling more accessible and affordable for young individuals, around the age of myself. I remember as a kid dreaming of all the places I wanted to one day visit and eventually creating a bucket list in my phone notes. Through these infographics I want my audience to feel inspired and get excited about traveling. For this project I focused on places in the U.S. rather than international countries because for a first time traveler it can be a lot cheaper and less intimidating to travel domestically. Austin and Salt Lake City are two vibrant and up and coming places for young adults, which is why I chose to highlight them as travel destinations in this project. In these infographics I created mini travel guide graphics for the two cities, listing the best places to eat at, some fun things to do, and even the best spots to thrift at. The activities and destinations listed in these infographics actually come from my personal travel guides that I create in my maps app on my phone. I wanted to include places that I actually want to go to in order to gear this project towards young adults around my age that may have similar interests.
Image(s): how do features of the illustration(s) effectively convey the message to your audience?
As mentioned previously, the things I included in the travel guide infographics are actual activities and places that interest me. By doing this I am gearing my project towards people around my age. Instead of choosing things that families would enjoy, I included places to thrift, coffee shops, and book stores because these are common and popular interests among young adults. For the sub-headings of these categories I tried to think of catchy phrases and titles that would catch someone's eye. Instead of merely saying "Things to Do" or "Places to Eat", I wrote "ventures + views" and "COFFEE + YUMMY JOINTS". In my opinion this feature is more attractive for my audience who is looking for something to do or eat. I spent a lot of time searching through fonts to select ones that were more "youthful" or unique, customized for my audience. My travel guides are a lot less formal, and more playful and exciting to the eye. If I were trying to find a travel guide for a certain destination these would catch my eye first because of the fun fonts and images included. I didn't want the infographics to come off as too crowded and overwhelming, which is why I only included a few images, many which are line art, creating a simple vibe. Lastly, the color themes that I picked to use in the infographics are less traditional, which is why I thought they would be perfect for my younger audience.
Process: what did you do to create the illustration(s) in this project?
To create these infographics in Canva, I first started off by looking at pre-made templates for inspiration. In the Austin travel guide I copied the swirly background shapes from a template and then overlayed everything else myself. In this first infographic I started with the headings and played around with fonts, colors, and text effects. Next I compiled a collection of images and illustrations from Canva that I would possibly use. For this travel guide I wanted to center it around a western, cowboy theme which is why I chose images such as cacti and a cow. The next step was to include the text of the actual places to visit and things to do. As described above, I attempted to create catchy headings and even included a brief description if someone was to get confused by the actual meaning of the title. All of the formatting and placement of text and images was done independently, and not by using a template. I added a few more details like the text at the bottom which includes a website for the destination, to finalize the infographic. For the Salt Lake City travel guide I did a similar process, except the background shapes were placed by myself and not copied from a template. After all this I moved into using Illustrator to create a few line art pieces. Inspired by the line artwork I found in Canva, I decided to create some of them on my own. The hat, mountains/lake, flower, and deer were all created in Illustrator. To do this I utilized the pen tool (and sometimes brush/pencil tool) to trace images I found online. Once I traced the entire image, I adjusted the color, and then transferred it over to Canva to be used in my actual infographic.
Learning: what did you learn from working on this project–for example, about Illustrator/Canva, about design, about communication, about yourself?
Before this project I had previously done some work in Canva creating simple graphics and Instagram story posts, but this was my first time creating an infographic and using Illustrator to create illustrations. I learned about the flexibility that Canva provides and the vast collection of templates, images, shapes, etc. that are included in the website. Overall, Canva is very versatile and I definitely think I will continue to use it in more personal projects in the future. One of my favorite parts of Canva are the illustrations that are included in the program, as well as the fonts. In Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator it hasn't been the easiest to find fonts that I find appealing, but Canva offers more unique and interesting options. The interface of Canva is also a lot more simple and easy to understand than Adobe Illustrator, in my opinion. In Illustrator I got to practice with the pen tool a good amount, so I got comfortable tracing images and creating line artwork. At the end of the day the process is not very difficult, but it can produce a really complex and intricate illustration that is visually appealing. Line art was the perfect way for me to incorporate Illustrator into this project because I wanted simple, yet detailed illustrations to get my point across to my audience. I enjoyed this project because it also taught me a lot about design and placement of text and images. It took me quite a bit of time to actually decide where to place certain texts or determine how big a font should big. Certain stylistic choices like this can definitely make or break a piece, which is why I attempted to be critical of my work when creating it.
Next: what will you do the same/differently on the next project?
For the next project I will continue to create fun, light-hearted artwork that is geared specifically for my audience: young adults. I think one thing I did well on this project was continuously checking that I was focusing on my audience and not just creating something that checked off all the requirements. I would also like to continue to get feedback throughout the process of creating my next project and reminding myself to be skeptical of certain design decisions. One thing I would like to do differently on the next project is spend more time on the tutorials. I think that since I didn't do this for the illustration project I didn't have as many techniques and skills that I could apply in Illustrator, which is one reason why I resorted to Canva. Since this will be my last project in this class I want to challenge myself to learn as many skills as possible in order to take away as much as I can from this class. It will also allow me to be more creative and have more choices for what I want to design. All in all I'm excited to see what I produce in this next project!