2.8 Art Direction and Design For Mandatory 2
Finalising the Art Direction for my travel guide
I kept going back and forth looking for other possible art directions. Illustration style would be really time consuming for me as I don’t usually illustrate and neither is it my strength. I suddenly had a great idea that popped into mind after seeing an image.
A new art direction: Image Cut-outs/collage
I chanced upon the image on the left (below) and realised that image cut outs that are then put together to form a collage creates a very interesting look. Travelogues sometimes takes on a style of a scrapbook that includes many images that are sometimes random. The design of putting cutout images with bold text gives a rather contrasting look. By cropping an image, focus is given strictly to it, removing the unnecessary stuff in the background.
I decided to just go ahead with this style as it suits my content better. I will also play with the layout of the bold text and the cut out images. For my Cover page I decided to reference the image below, and replace the text as Singapoliday.
I decided to sketch a reference of how my travel guide may look.
Before I continued with the design and layout of the travel guidebook, I needed to compile all the content that goes in. For the introduction/preface, the content is basically a summary of what my project looks at and can be found below:
COVID-19 has put a halt on international tourism. In response to this, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has been actively encouraging Singaporeans to ‘Experience Singapore now. Travel later’, aiding the industry through domestic receipts. The campaign SingapoRediscovers recommends places to visit with Orchard Road, Chinatown and Sentosa, being the main attractions. However Singaporeans have the mindset of “been there, done that”, which is one of the obstacles that domestic tourism faces. This travel guide looks into the SingapoRediscovers campaign, comparing these ‘Singapoliday’ itineraries with the actual activities that the locals engage in at the respective locations.
I also decided to include the definition of ‘Singapoliday’, since this term is unique to the campaign and is also one of the main focus of my content. Putting the definition visually like a dictionary would also be interesting.
Singapoliday definition
1. A mini-holiday destination, with rich history, character and culture, as well as a suite of experiences worthy of in-depth exploration.
2. Just another dubious tourism board initiative.
3. A campaign to help support businesses affected by the pandemic.
The definitions are taken from the sources below respectively:
These definitions are selected specifically, one being from STB, the organisation who came up with the term, a news article that critiques and compares domestic tourism campaigns in asia and lastly from a more local perspective.
The next section would be a compilation of commentary from the government officials and STB leaders: Chan Chun Sing (Minister for Trade and Industry), Lynette Pang (STB’s assistant chief executive, Marketing Group) and Keith Tan (Chief Executive of STB). Commentary and insights from those affected by the pandemic are also to be included, like hoteliers and tour operators.
Followed by the whole section on the Singapoliday itineraries recommended by STB. On their webpage it is organised as: Accommodation, tours and experiences, dining and shopping. I took the information from their webpage and organised the itineraries into the follow areas: Chinatown, Little India and Sentosa. Referring back to the art direction I have settled on, I will be sourcing for images based on the itinerary suggested by STB. The images are not provided on the Singaporediscover site, thus I have to look for them via third party sources or the owners/companies of the attractions. I have compiled all the information on a google docs before putting them into the indesign file (as shown below).
I left the conclusion empty and will get back to it again when I am done with everything. I decided to start working on the layout of the Singpoliday itinerary. I do not have the images edited and cropped yet, so I left empty spaces for them. I have also decided to go with a B5 size for my publication.
I decided to go with a staggered look for the type and images. The title of the section goes at the top. The attractions will be visually shown as an image next to the name of the place, and they are spread across two columns. The body text to describe the attractions is spread across three columns at the bottom. The typeface I have not decided yet but decided to just use a serif and sans serif typeface as placeholders for now.
I decided to search for typefaces that I could use for my publication as well as all my other collaterals as well. I think a bold sans serif font would go well with the visuals. I also plan to use bright contrasting colours for the travel guide as travelling shouldn’t be dull.
The first typeface that I considered was merriweather. I thought it would go well as a header text and it looks more like a font that is suited for a lifestyle magazine. However, personally I think because it is a serif font, it isn’t as bold and modern as what I am looking for.
I searched for latest modern bold fonts and this was one of the results. It immediately captured my attention because of how clean and modern it looks. The three weight of the typeface would also be sufficient for me to use as header and body text. Before confirming on this typeface, I decided to test it out first to see if it matches.
The first itinerary is for Sentosa and I decided to work on that first before moving on to the rest. I started to source for the images required and cropped them out.
Afterwards, I decided to try out the layout, as well as to see how the typeface works with the whole look and feel, before proceeding to do up the rest of the pages.
For buildings like hotels they will be stacked on top of one another at the bottom of the page to leave room for the accompanying text to go at the top. For the header text, it is in bold while the title at the top is in regular and the body copy at the bottom is in light. Seeing that the layout and typeface works, I decided to continue sourcing images for the other two places (Chinatown and Little India).