OUGD503: Illustration Research

We looked at the new passport design for Norwegian citizens, and drew a lot of inspiration from their flat illustrations that cover the inside spreads.  Their front covers are simplistic and vibrant due to their use of bold colour, and provide all the necessary information in a minimal and modern design.

One feature we really liked about the Norway passport redesign is the glow-in-the-dark element, which uses specialist inks to allow areas of text and a strip representing the northern lights to appear, adding an interactive component to the design.  This is something we considered - using different inks to achieve interesting results - however due to the cost effects we eliminated this idea, deciding we wouldn't be able to produce design of this standard within our budget.

Hey Studio in Barcelona has recently brought out a series of flat vector illustrations, that play with the use of block coloured shapes to produce aesthetically pleasing images.  This was something we found worked really well visually, and would be a suitable style to follow to create the right message and tone of voice that Airbnb's brand demonstrates.  Their use of colours has enabled them to produce images that incorporate shadows and highlights which give the illustrations a more realistic element overall, despite their flatness.  The compositions are also something that attracted me to the images, as the shapes within each one are balanced across the whole frame.

We had the idea to create similar illustrations that show views from apartments or houses around the world that can be visited through Airbnb. Our source for this will be the Airbnb website, which showcases many different homes and views from the windows of places you can visit.