My Favourite Applied Illustrations: Study Task 3

The Dad Dancing Birthday Card

• The way in which the Illustrator has shaped the text around imagery is really interesting. It gives both text and image an equal importance, which works well on a birthday card. It also means that the design fills the whole surface of product.
• The repetition of the same figure in different poses also works really well visually.
• I can never find birthday cards like this in a card shops. They always tend to be tacky. The simplicity and hand made quality of this design makes it not look tacky, in addition to the fact that the surface of the card is matted rather than shiny.
• The concept of the illustration is also interesting and amusing - the dad dance! This is something that everyone experiences on at at least one of their birthdays meaning that it is a good birthday card for anyone of pretty much any age giving it a large market.
• The design also works well because it reflects a broadly relatable idea while staying away from general symbols used to represent a birthday (i.e. balloons or a cake), giving it an originality.

The Sun Worshipper Phone Case

• I love how the illustrator has taken a phrase and illustrated it literally (the sun worshipper), in interesting yet simplistic concept.
• It has been applied to a phone case with the purpose of decorating quite a plain product, which people carry around with them and see all the time.
• It is a very simple and charming image, which makes you smile. It is light and happy, perfect for its application. 
• The simplistic colours of the illustration also help to communicate this sense of happiness and tranquility, while making it eye catching (complimentary colours amplify one another).
• I also like the way in which the arms of the sun wrap around the sides os the phone to incorporate the whole case in the design and not just the back.
• I am definitely giving it to Mum for christmas, a bit of a sun worshipper herself.

My India Cushion

• The use of really beautiful colours and interesting design make it decorative and it has decorated my bed for about 5 years (the perfect cushion for me as my name is India). 
• It is not only decorative but educational too (since having it I have learnt all the places in India without trying) as my eyes are drawn to it because it is so pretty.
• Creating an illustration that is both decorative and educational and decorative is difficult to achieve.
• The fact that the design is embroidered into the cushion rather than printed also really adds to it because it gives it a tactility, while enhancing the colours. This media also works well with the simplistic, slightly naive imagery.
• The application of the illustration therefore works to visually enhance the illustration as well as the illustration visually enhancing the product.

The Ortigia Candle Packaging Design

• I received one of these candles for Christmas a couple of years ago and I still have the packaging from it because i love it so much. It smells and burns the same as your generic candle, but what really sells it is the packaging.
• This is because it is elegant due to the simplistic design and colour scheme, which makes it look expensive (perfect for a present). The name of the brand had also been taken into account in the illustration (Ortigia, a small island in Sicily). This is expressed through the use of palm trees and the generally exotic nature of the design.
• I also think that the way in which the colour of the packaging has been coordinated with the colour of the wax and the smell of the candle works really well. Everything has been considered and it comes as a whole package.

Christmas Scene Wrapping Paper 

• The illustration for this wrapping paper has been really well thought through and it moves away from the generic Christmas wrapping paper by showing us a scene rather than a repeated symbol of Christmas i.e. a snowflake or a snowman.
• The design works really well as a repeat (compulsory for the product) .The repeated oversized green christmas tree helps it to hang together nicely. 
• The fact that the scene is quite complex and it is repeated works really well to express the hectic nature of christmas.
• However, even though the scene is complex, the use of simple shapes (with no outline) and a refined colour scheme with a plain background adds a simplicity to the image, which allows it to work as a repeat.