Untranslatable Postcards

After finishing my illustrations, I had to place them in a design context. As much as they work well as illustrations alone, and I like them this way, there is the issue that this borders too close to art rather than design, and so I needed to make them a product, setting them in a design background to fulfil the brief.

I had thought about making them into posters, possibly to be placed in an airport or to advertise travelling or holidays. However for a poster to make sense and for the message to be conveyed, the I would need to include text on the page along with the illustration. I had originally planned to do this but after experimenting with it I found I didn’t like the way it looked, and I much preferred the illustrations on their own without any surrounding text.

After experimenting with a few ideas, I decided to use my illustrations to create a set of postcards. I liked that this kept with the idea of travelling and visiting new places, and I also found that in doing this I could present the illustrations on their own, but without losing the information needed to convey the message, as I could include the typography on the back of the postcard. I really like the way these work and I think they make successful, strong pieces of design. I feel that they fulfil the brief with various links to the theme of internationality. I think the illustrations are strong on their own and they fit the postcard format very well, allowing for a good piece of design that successfully shows off my illustrations.

Mangata

For my final illustration I originally wanted to use the word Saudade, a Portuguese word translating to ‘the longing for something once loved that is now lost’. However I liked the idea of keeping the same style I was working with throughout all three illustrations, with a landscape scene inside a rounded frame. I couldn’t find an idea that would fit this style and also relate to the word, and so I decided instead to use a Swedish word, Mangata, translating to ‘the road like reflection of the moon in water’.

Straight away with this word I knew I could create a strong composition that fitted with the previous illustrations and also worked well on its own, whilst also relating to the word I chose. I used stippling very heavily in this design to show texture and changes in tone. I really like my illustration style that I have developed through this project, and I think it works to create some strong, fitting illustrations for some interesting words. After finishing my three illustrations I now need to place them within a design context, as whilst I would like to have them as stand alone illustrations and I think they work, this borders close on the side of art and so I need to place them in the context of a product.

Waldeinsamkeit

The next word I chose to work with is ‘Waldeinsamkeit’, another German words with translates to ‘the feeling of being alone in the woods’. For this illustration I wanted to create a design similar to the last drawing, using a rounded shape to frame the illustration, but without using a border, rather just stopping the illustration and letting the white space to frame it, similar to Bernard Reynolds.

With this illustration I experimented more with mark making techniques and using them to create different textures, especially on the trees. After finishing the illustration I again scanned it in and used Photoshop to up the contrast and make the solid blacks, like with the last design. I really like this design and I think it works as a strong composition. I think I have used perspective very effectively and I think the design successfully encompasses the ideas behind the word, whilst also working well alone as an illustration.

Fernweh

For my first illustration I decided to use ‘Fernweh’, a German word which translates closely to “the feeling of being homesick for somewhere you have never been to.” The ideas behind this word are related to travelling and the want to travel to new places, and so I wanted to make the illustration quite adventure based whilst also making it look quite homely and cosy. These ideas about travel and the wilderness are something that is becoming much more frequent in my work and is becoming a growing interest of mine, so I think this, and two other words with similar ideas will make for some very strong illustrations.

When I think  of travel and adventure I often think of mountains and forests and places with lots of wonder about them, and I have also found through previous drawings I’ve done that they can make very picturesque, well composed illustrations. As the word is about the feeling of homesickness, I wanted to add in an element of homeliness and so I decided to also draw a small, cosy cabin.

I started by drawing out my design in pencil and then working over it with fineliner pens. I stuck with black and white and used blocks of colour to create the shading and shadows in the image, creating a simple, solid look. I also began experimenting with different mark making techniques like stippling and also experimenting with different nib thicknesses, ranging from 0.05mm to 0.8mm.

After finishing the illustration I scanned it in and used Photoshop to up the contrast, removing any colour and creating a completely solid black look. This makes the design much stronger than the illustration, and while the pen marks are lost in the solid black, the hand drawn lines are still visible and the hand drawn look is not lost in the design. I really like this illustration and I think it is a strong composition. I think it encompasses the ideas behind the word Fernweh successfully, whilst I also think it works well on its own as a stand alone illustration.

Bernard Reynolds – Most Happy Husbandman

Bernard Reynolds (1915-1997) was an East Anglian artist who was recommended to me by my tutor, and specialised in a number of different areas, although it is his illustration that I am most inspired by. In particular, I like this set I came across from a book called Most Happy Husband, written by Ethelind Fearon. I love the black and white illustrations and the way Reynolds has used different techniques, such as stippling, to create texture and depth in his illustrations.
What I also really like about these pieces is the way that the images don’t seem to have a clear edge, however the drawing comes to a rough edge and just stops, rather than meeting a clear, defined border. I think this makes for a very strong illustration and I really like the way the white pages frames the illustration. I think it also creates a sense of wonder about the landscape, as the drawing seems like it should carry on but has been left, leaving the viewer curious about what lies beyond the edge of the illustration.

Sources:
http://fulltable.com/vts/r/rural/menu.htm
http://fulltable.com/vts/aoi/r/reynolds/h.htm

Susanne König

I have always been interested in tattoos and tattoo art, and I’ve even picked up a few myself in the last couple of years. One artist who’s work I love in particular is Susanne König, a tattooist from Hamburg, Germany. She uses exclusively black and grey and often uses dot work to create tone and texture in her designs, and I think she does it extremely effectively.

I find König’s work inspiring and I love the illustrational, almost woodcut like style that she uses. I think that she creates very strong illustrations and many of them tie in with both the style and ideas that I love to focus on in my own work.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/suflanda/?hl=en

Barkin Electric Studio

Barkin Electric Studio, based in Denver, Colorado, is an illustrator and designer who’s work often focuses on the outdoors and adventure. This naturally is something I love and so it immediately drew my interest. Most of the work is shown through Instagram, which I have linked below, where they present images of their rough sketches and works in progress, as well as final, finished outcomes. I find that this is very relatable, especially as a designer and illustrator, as it encourages the idea that design takes time and it is not as simple as quickly whipping something up on a Mac.

It also shows people how the work is made, which creates another level of interest in the work and it also helps answer any questions people may have about how they can create their own work, after being inspired by this. It does however open up the opportunity for people to more easily steal ideas and rip off designs, but for a designer as open and honest as this I think they would have more than likely taken this into consideration anyway.

I really love the illustrational style of these designs, and the simplicity and sense of wonder that goes into them. I think this designer has found a very effective balance between hand drawn and digital design, whereby the illustrations can keep their hand drawn look, whilst being coloured and refined digitally. In some instances, I actually prefer the monochrome, drawn version more than the coloured one, which is something that I think will influence my own illustrations and that I will take into consideration when scanning them and refining them for final prints.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/b_e_studio/

Tove Jansson

Tove Jansson (August 1914 – June 2001) was a Finnish novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author, best known as the author of the Moomin children’s books. The first book, The Moomins and the Great Flood, appeared in 1945, though it was the next two books, Comet in Moominland and Finn Family Moomintroll, published in 1946 and 1948 respectively, that brought her fame.

What I find most inspiring about Jansson is her illustrational work both for the Moomin books and also for works such as The Hobbit. I love her monochrome style and I love the darkness that is shown through her illustrations.Many of her works have a very natural element to them, many of them set in the woods or outdoors. This has a massive appeal to me as I personally love the outdoors and I am a big fan of illustrational work based around that idea.

Jansson has a very good compositional eye from the look of her illustrations, and I think this is especially clear in the landscapes she draws, as they are often laid out beautifully and they create these warm, wondrous scenes that I feel invoke a sense of curiosity and wonder about the beautiful little world she has created. I have taken a lot of inspiration from Jansson’s work and it has influenced my own work and my illustrational style, as many of these ideas I have discussed are ones that I have myself and are things that I want to portray within my own compositions.

Untranslatable Ideas

After looking through these lists of words I narrowed down the ones that I liked the most until I had six that I liked and I felt I could make some interesting work with. Then after this I would brainstorm some ideas around each word before choosing my final three designs.

• Fernweh (German) – feeling homesick for a place that you have never been to.
• Suadade (Portuguese) – the feeling of longing, melancholy or nostalgia for something/someone is lost or perhaps never even happened.
• Mangata (Swedish) – the road-like reflection of the moon in the water.
• Tokka (Finnish) – a large herd of reindeer.
• Wabi-Sabi (Japanese) – represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of imperfection and the natural cycle of growth and decay.
• Waldeinsamkeit (German) – the feeling of being alone in the woods.
• Kilig (Filipino) – the feeling of butterflies in your stomach, usually when something romantic or cute takes place.

When narrowing down the list of words to a few I wanted to use, I made sure to choose words that I felt had more meaning to them and that I immediately had ideas about, as I thought these would be ones I would be able to create the more exciting work for, especially if I felt some kind of connection with the words. This also allowed me to come up with many more ideas for each words, considering different angles and imagery that could work well within my chosen drawing style. I want my designs and my illustrations to be quite simple and minimal, keeping to a black and white theme, and so I want to choose the simplest words that I feel could be presented successfully with a simple design. I find all six of these words interesting and inspiring and I feel like they could all inspire some strong work with my drawing, and so next I will choose which three I will actually take through to final outcomes.