This mind map was to determine qualities within my own personality that would lend themselves to illustration.  I was drawn, once again, towards topics of fantasy. I was also keeping in mind that I wanted whatever I chose to lend itself towards various mark making textures.

I found myself struggling with logos. The ‘E’, ‘M’, and ‘B’ lend themselves to a triangular balance, yet the forms felt too rigid. After discussion, it was determined that I would forego the illustrative logo and simply use fonts mixed with my own signature. I have determined the letter form I like, now I will be practicing writing it with a calligraphy pen (one of my preferred tools).

This was to try to find the best way to portray illustration yet not overshadow the information upon the card. The main way I plan to do this is by having the illustration be in only a slightly darker color than the background.

This mood board was specifically created for the study of mark making and ink work. This will be necessary for the design of my business card as well as my letterhead. Later in my progress work, I used a variety of mark making in order to emphasize different textures.

This is the mood board for the visual inspiration, subject-wise, of the business card and letterhead illustrations.​​​​​​​

The sketch for the illustration flanking the letterhead was relatively quick. I utilized different mark making techniques that I specialize in, combining them into a cohesive selection.

As seen on the logo sketch page which can be viewed above, this is the logo I decided on. After writing it out with a Chinese brush pen, I've now taken to working on it in Illustrator.

Completed logo design

Update: After an in progress review, I went back and made some changes to my logo. A few lines (specifically on the M) were a little awkward and needed to be smoothed out. As well, I received multiple critiques that the 'i' was getting lost, so I extended the 'i' to make a wider arch and to break through the loop of the 'B'.  

This is an in progress of my resume with my letterhead. I'm currently playing around with formats, font sizes, et cetera (although I'm favoring the Baskerville font).

In progress of the small promo book.

After a progress review, my attention was drawn to several errors in my resume that I am currently attempting to correct. These include errors with break characters, the ordering of dates, using en-dashes, and more details that should be added.

Here is the front and back of the promo book. I struggled to balance out my colored pieces compared to the black and white pieces. I also did my best to evenly distribute all of the information.

Here are the pages completed so far with elements such as hidden characters for a class review.

Our final in progress review left me with some helpful critiques and a few corrections to make. This included using a 'space after' and 'space before' instead of returns. I also shrunk some of the text, specifically on my resume and my reference sheet. 

It was also recommended I switch my Red Riding Hood piece with my Harry Potter piece because the attention drawn to the red was drawing attention away from the information. I also noticed a major flaw after the crit: I had all of the information except for how to contact me. Needless to say, I added that information immediately. 

Here are the completed illustrations for my business card and for my thank you card. I wanted to make a complete narrative that joined my business card and resume together (and any other pieces if possible). To do this, I used the same mark making style that I had used on the feather in the letterhead, now utilizing it in the feathers seen here. This is the same from the crystals to the bottles.

I'm putting together my business card, but am unsure about the back. I'm considering putting a piece of my work on the back but I don't know what will balance the card illustration well. Putting the card illustration on the back as well, even though it's in greater detail, feels a bit repetitive. 

I've reversed the colors, which I think looks more interesting and still allows for the detail to come through.

It had been decided during a discussion of my illustrations that the business card illustration was more interesting than the illustrations I had originally done around the 'thank you' calligraphy.