Whenever we visit a place on vacation there is always a memory or an instance that sticks with us and makes the trip worth remembering. For me its usually the food I have, the people I meet, or just the beauty of that place. One place that checked all of these boxes was when I lived in Kerala. Out of all the places that I have ever lived in and believe me there are many, the experience that I had over here was not even comparable to others.
A lot of people like to capture these moments by writing or photography. I find it better to design them graphically. This is how I came up with this illustration.
The major part of designing is choosing the right colors. Purple signifies Peace, Mystery, and Grandeur. A perfect choice for what I wanted to depict.
Coming back to the illustrations itself, I wanted something which showcased the place as well as the specific moment I fell in love with the place. That’s how I chose the Backwaters.
We now have the color palette and an image in our head of what the final result should be. Now comes the implementation.
I wanted the entire design to be in a circle to have a minimalistic feel to it. When it comes to the details which in this case is the right shade and have the perfect elements, this is where things tend to get a little difficult. But I broke them down with the following steps. First, like any other artwork, I chose the perfect purple shade for the background. Next coming to the elements, we start with the lake. Having a solid color for it makes it seem simple which is why I chose to make it a gradient. A gradient in terms of design means blending one color with the other. By doing that I gave the lake a little bit of a realistic feel. Next, I decided to finalize the central element which in this case is the boat and the coconut trees. These were pretty simple. The only thing which took some time was finding the right color combination. If you imagine yourself to be in that illustration, I wanted the boat and the coconut trees to be the first thing the viewer sees. This is the reason why finding the right shade was important. Since they were on a lake, adding shadows was important. To make the design seem less empty, I added some natural elements to it, something which can compliment the central element as well. The perspective needed not to shift from the main elements. This was done by making the background illustration small, a classic trick to show things at a distance, and giving them a dark color. With a few final touches, I had the perfect design which truly resembled the gorgeous image I have of Kerala.
As a graphic designer, I have to constantly look at real-life examples to find some inspiration for the work I do. A lot of times it is difficult to do that. But with patience and a little bit of thinking, I wouldn’t say it is too difficult.
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