Design Practice II//Product/Range/Distribution//Vector Illustration development.

Some of my initial drawings and design developments for my illustrative design throughout my printed media, and, in particular, throughout my book. Looking to develop minimal, clean designs which communicate the stories with ease, but also, hopefully, a little creativity.
I was quite wary at the early stages of the project to use colour so that the design didn't look too "samey", however, after a lot of recommendations and suggestions in crits, I know it's the right way to go, and need to focus on getting the design as appropriate for my target market and audience as possible.
So, I've gone on to work with colour and adding highlights and shadows where appropriate, to give it a little more character, but essentially, to still work with flat vectors.

Coming to re-design my cover with colour details, I also went on to apply the adapted Abril Typeface I had worked with. However, when I put this and the illustrative design together, I felt that the design looked really gimmicky and a bit too young- the type too decorative and feminine, and might be a little off putting to boys of that age, when, realistically, I need to keep the design as gender neutral as possible (when you're nine, it matters whether or not you're holding a pink book as a boy...)

I decided to go back to using the typeface 'Paper Cut Sans' that I had designed, and felt that this still worked reasonably well with the illustrative design, and worked well enough in balance with the body copy type, 'Cardiff Regular'.

Applying one of my finalised illustrations to my layout, it looked a little dull, and although I want it to function as a standard, paperback publication, I think a little more imagination and design would benefit the layout in terms of overall aesthetics and readability. I'll work towards getting all of the illustrations complete before I go on to re consider the layout, and really just prioritise with my work as best as I can, given that I still have so much to get through!

Also stared applying the design onto other printed media, such as my bookmark and CD cover, which I've received good feedback for, and need to get a move on with the distribution and promotional designs to make the project a lot more substantial and, essentially, a Graphic Design project as opposed to a purely Illustrative one.