OUGD 602 - design publication - A rough guide to Thailand - Research

In the summer I spent a month travelling round Thailand with a mate. It was a good experience going from place to place, meeting new people and experiencing a new culture. I didn't read any guides before I went I just used information told to me by friends who had already been over.
While I was there I had a look at a few guides that were in hotels like lonely planet, these are useful books but I felt they were just too wordy and not very personal, they also weren't particularly tailored too backpackers around my age more towards targeted at families.
I want to create a rough guide to Thailand drawing from my own and other people my age's experiences. I want to include things that I learnt from just being there, like tips on how to handle your money and where there cheapest drinks are. I think for this project I want to achieve a more personalised guide, one thats not too serious and will appeal more to people around my age.

Ive had a look at some illustrated guides and some of them are really nicely made.

I like this idea of a folded booklet, its simple and the whole thing is easily accessible, the drawings are used in this to help illustrate locations.

This is an actual book something that I would like to do for mine,

I like this book although not strictly a guide its more of an illustration showcase of drawings of Paris. they are very detailed and probably pretty accurate. I like these drawings of landscapes.

I started to draw some illustrations for my book, I chose to do them in the style of paintings you see on the inside of Thai temples. I had a look on the internet and through pictures I took when I was there. surprisingly as far as I can see there aren't any books that only focus on the buddhist art inside the temples. Because of this is quite a hard thing to research and find inspiration for your own illustrations .

Im really happy with the way these initial drawing came out and I feel they fit the style I was aiming for perfectly. Ive used classic imagery coupled with things that will run along side the guide like the image of the woman driving a moped. The problem with the style of drawing was it was taking me hours to complete just one due the the amount of detail. I also didnt know how they would look when all placed together and if they would flow throughout the book.

I started to look at other artist and illustrators because I felt I needed a quicker way of producing images that would still fit with my theme. The guide to Tokyo inspired me to try out a different style that I haven't really explored before.
Savwo is an illustrator iv'e known about for years as he was one of my mums old students. He has a really strong style which is quite unique to him.

Its quite a lose style that appears quite messy. I like the detail he includes and the minimal use of colour which I think would be ideal for my book. Most of his work tends to be screen printed which is something I will consider when printing my book. I feel the style also fits in terms of a guide from my perspective due to the fact they look like quick sketches done while I was traveling around.

I feel the drawings have a strong identity and once I have put them on the computer I feel they will fit well with what im trying to achieve. Ive gone through and written down all the categories that I want to include in the book and I have accordingly done an illustration for each category.