The Illustrated Self - Field Notes, Development

In the group crit it was suggested that the field notes design needed something else to it, some more context and visual information. Matt suggested to try and include some visualisation of what the book does for me, what it means and what purpose it serves my practice and my life around the centred image of the actual book.

What does it serve?

• observation
• documentation
• tangibility
• reflection
• creativity 
• organisation
• understanding 
• questioning
• curiosity
• advice
• guidance

It was a real challenge to try and illustrate these concepts without being too obvious or stereotypical, and this is something I am still going to explore further.

I am really into the slightly dark, vintage feel these roughs have to them, especially the ornate borders. They remind me of old tarot cards or symbolistic art forms such as memento mori. These are things that i have tried to incorporate into my work for a while because it's an aesthetic that I love and it's ability to imbue meaning into objects in really fascinating. 

I am unsure whether some of the images are too obvious, such as an eye for observation and a hand for tangibility, but I almost feel like that simplicity is one of the successes. It's a valuable task to them try and distill these symbols into even simpler forms also, such as on the right page, telling a whole concept and function in a few lines and shapes.