ILLU Project 1 - 2D Visual Recipe

Running on from the bake-off, after documenting the process, it was time to move on to development. I made a few notes and mindmaps to brainstorm ideas. There were a few things I needed to make a decision on first - what kind of genre or "vibe" of recipe I was going for, what style it would be done in, in what medium and with what layout. 
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Experimenting with Style and Layout
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developmental notes and sketches for style and medium

​What kind of "voice" did I want this recipe to have? Plain instruction? Playful? Humorous and cheeky? And did I just want a stereotypical stepwise recipe, or a storylike narrative? I needed to think about this in order to pick a style and medium to match, so I experimented with a bit of everything to start with.

As I tested styles and ideas, I began to develop a feel for the direction I wanted to go in. The common ground was isolated illustrations - multiple "floating" and "framed" drawings making up the recipe instead of one big scene. I felt this would allow me a little narrative expression alongside the instructions, and I decided to use a simplistic cartoon style to match. Despite my apprehension around digital artwork, I decided it was the best-suited medium to use, and that it would be a good way to learn and challenge myself.
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developmental notes and sketches for layout

As for layout, I knew I wanted to use a 2:1 ratio - 1:1 seemed too confined for my ideas, and 3:1 seemed too spaced out. I sketched out some thumbnails and narrowed them down to three; a simple infographic-style recipe, a comic-style ​recipe, and one that was kind of "half and half".

There were pros and cons to each of these. I liked the simplicity of the standard recipe, but the comic and 50/50 styles allowed for more expression. The comic layout made for slicker navigation and complete freedom of style, but I preferred the 50/50 layout for its ability to accommodate both the humour of the realistic experience and the stepwise recipe. This is the layout idea I moved forward with - a split view, humorous infographic depicting "how it went" vs "how it should have gone".

The Process

As I've mentioned before, my digital illustration skills leave a lot to be desired. However, given that this was one of the first things I ever attempted digitally, I think it went better than I expected; I had been so afraid to try it, but I actually really enjoyed using photoshop and drawing with a tablet (the same tablet that has been gathering dust for about a year because I've been too sheepish to touch it).

.....and with the obligatory positive evaluation out the way, I can list the downsides. This took way longer than I thought it would. I swore so much. I ate an entire packet of bourbon creams out of sheer frustration. I had a lot to learn about navigating photoshop, and the idea I thought was concrete kept morphing into something different. I lost count of how many times I moved things, cut things out, changed the colour scheme, added a background, took away a background... But it was al art of the process and learning curve. If anything, I now know for future projects to try out more ideas before settling on one.

The Finished Piece

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project notes