Vis Com #2 - Illustrate a Map

Brief: Choose a country from a list and create it visually interesting and informative by using illustration and graphic design (including typography, photography etc.)

I chose Japan because it could give me a chance to draw in a more quick cartoonish way that I could end up liking or not, but I think of it more as practice in an area I am unfamiliar with. I also chose Japan because of its cultural stereotypes and their nightlife in the capital city i.e.; all the flashing lights and nightlife.

Here are some sketches I started out with. These are showing cultural cartoon sketches of their fonts they use, the landscapes and the cartoon pictures they have around Japan.

Here are some further development of mine and exploring further into the font types, cartoon characters made by Japan (anime/manga style drawings) and how the map will be presented.

I discovered some illustrations of fish commonly seen in illustrations from Japan and I tried to recreate these in different styles. I prefer the more precisely drawn one (the right) comparing to the left one because it has a crisp finish to it, unlike the left one. I chose the right fish to develop further to photo manipulate later on.

I found some images off the internet to show how could a Japanese font type could be shown in a illustrative way and these were my favourite four images.

Here are my interpretations of the text pieces I found on the internet. I enjoyed making the LED looking lights/signs more than the others because they are simple and very effective, in my opinion. I just made the text into a border shape, made in the inside of the shape disappear, made a second layer and create a glowing/blurred effect of a colour behind the first layer to make it look like an LED light effect.

I used the fish I drew and removed the background (so it can be easily layerable if I think of anything else), took inspiration from the text made illustrations I made previously and merged them, then tried to combine all the ideas and create a Japan shape round the images. It looks all clustered in the last image but it shows its the country of culture and a burst of colour comparing to some places round the world; Japan is known for its outrageous fashion, culture events, cosplays, drawings (anime, manga, chibi) etc..

I did enjoy this as I could try different ideas and not just drawing what I see; I could try and be a little more basic as well as more colourful when I draw. If I could change some things I would have changed how I planned my work i.e.; research the culture in more of information based stuff first, rather than go straight in with drawing, as this is what I tend to do; just to brainstorm ideas first and forget about the information required as well.