OUGD 602 - Rough guide to thailand - Development

Ive been categorising everything I need for the content of my guide to Thailand, Ive been talking to friends that have recently been adding on anything that they experienced when over there. Ive found that everyone who went for there first time had similar experiences in terms of places they visited and tips they found out.

The catagories I have narrowed it down to are -

First arriving
Places and prices
Getting around - bus, train, plane
Food
Renting mopeds
Activities
Suggested routes
Places to stay - hotels hostels
Culture
Temples
Top tips
Where to avoid
Crime and saftey

I wanted to keep the list quite short as I dont want this guide to turn into a huge book of everything there is to do in Thailand. I like the idea of presenting a rough guide because the point of traveling is doing it for yourself and having your own experiences. As far as I can see there are only a few published guide that have a similar way of looking at things.

I started to make some illustrations to go in my guide, originally I went for quite a clean style that I have used for previous projects. I liked the illustrations I was producing but I wanted to go for a style that looked like I had drawn it there as a traveller. I think this would tie in better with the guide as it makes it feel a bit more personal.

These are the illustrations I initially did, I like the detail and the fact I've used the classic buddhist style you see on the insides of temples interacting with the categories ive listed in my guide. To draw these became pretty time consuming but its something I want to develop because im not entirely happy with the way my other version has turned out.

These are the alternative illustrations I came up with, I decided to use a more sketched approach because I feel its more in keeping with the way I would like my guide to turn out. I drew the sketches with a pencil from pictures I took and also ones that existed in other travel guides and on the internet.

I started to put them onto the computer to digitise them so they could be put into the format I wanted.
I have looked at other guides and how they are laid out and one that caught my attention was the guide to Tokyo.

I like the concertina they used for this guide because I feel it makes a large proportion of the information available all at once. This layout also makes it easily transportable and the ability to include a large image like a map, something that I want to include on my guide.

With this format in mind I thought about the stock that I wanted to use, as its a travel guide its got to be quite hardwearing and not likely to break or rip easily. Being a guide for Thailand where a lot of people who go traveling from England will go when its the rainy season, this means that the paper its printed on will have to be waterproof or water resistance to an extent. The paper I had in mind was the fire proof paper available in the print room for around £6 for a A1 sheet. I think this used in a concertina or something similar will be ideal for this guide.

The fire proof paper is waterproof and is hard to tear, this said I will also have to produce a protective case or something similar. Maybe a see through pouch that could have a string through it for easy access.

I think some of illustrations work better than other and I feel I might have to re draw some of them but I think overall they work together quite well. I have experimented with overlaying colour and Thai text to add something more to the images. For the final design I would like to screen print it because on a large scale I think it will give me more control over the final design.