Exercise: Giving instructions

For this exercise I was asked to create an illustration to fit one of three options and I chose ‘making a cup of tea’ – I do like a good cuppa!

There are soooo many teas out there and ways to make it, so I decided to ask a good friend who is even more of a tea genie that I am to to pick a nice tea and explain to me how she makes it. She chose a green tea from a brand called ‘Jade Tips’ and so based on that, I started out creating a moodboard with examples and research and photos that I took from going into a few tea shops in Geneva and sticking to greens, beiges and browns to match the green tea kind of theme – I do love green!

I then used a sketch book to work out what information I needed to give and the steps involved. I started out trying to think about the different phases of boiling the water, brewing the tea, how much tea and water, for how long then straining and pouring. The specific instructions for Jade Tips were related to amount of tea, time brewed and temperature of the water so I integrated all of this and created various possibilities as per the below.

I also tried out some colours and materials with ink, pencil and felt pens and tried out different ways to arrange the steps. I tried with basic imperative words that would accompany the drawings and words temperature, amount of tea and length of brewing time – however we were also told to use as little words as possible. So I took them out and rather than have steps, one main image to also try to make things even simpler and on the premise that most people do know how to boil water and pour intuitively and thus the main information needed was really only the temperature, amount and time – and thus I could show all this in an easy one image with a nice cup and/or teapot. To illustrate these three things, I chose to do a simple ‘icon’ style flame, tea leaf and basic clock.

I then tried to draw my own style of teapots and cups based on inspiration from the moodboard and and putting some colours together to see how it would work.

I did come up with nice shapes but I still wasn’t overly convinced by any so I decided to raid my own cupboards and make it more personal and pick one of my favourite tea mugs to base the actual cup on.

I kept the same set up of three main instructions, a title area for text and the main illustration of the cup but moved it around a little to try out different arrangements. I wanted to make sure that the three instructions were also a clear part of the illustration but without taking away from the nice cup so decided to encircle these in some way. I then thought about how that circle could work and decided to try to use the ring marks that can often be made when setting a tea cup down and decided to experiment with real green tea and different sized mugs on watercolour paper so the paper wouldn’t warp.

I realised that only green tea, even when brewed for ages was giving too light a mark so I added some acrylic paint to the tea and, trying more of a green one and more of a brown one and this worked really well. I tried different sizes of mugs and then tried to match that to the best size to make the final design at A3 size. I chose the 8cm diameter cup that fits neatly across an A3 vertically. For the mug, I also tried out some colours using water colour and a mix of acrylic and gouache, having gone back to my sketchbooks to find inspiration for a nice light and airy mark making from the exercise we did on this previously. I chose to use a water colour base and add gouache and acrylic through dabbing with a paintbrush to give some light texture and then give more depth with ink pens once dry.

I then drew up the design on A3 water colour paper and created the design. I decided that I would use software to make the heading banner and all text digital for a more professional look so I left those spaces, took a high res photo and lightened it in Photoshop before using In Design to create a kind of leaflet that I imagine could be A5 or smaller that would go with the tea when being bought.

I then tried out various options in In Design to get the right finish, trying out fonts and colours for the header and text as per the below:

I finally settled on a note taking style font for the main header which was inline with the more informal and organic shapes and feel of the illustration. I also quite liked a different font, simpler for the smaller sub heading and text in the three rings and also tried out a small edging at the bottom to bring it together more. However, now that I see all the options together like this, I am now going to go back and take the bottom edging out as I think it will be nicer and simpler without. So here is my final version below!

Final reflections:

I am so used to writing out instructions, policy papers, guidance, emails etc. that actually breaking down instructions into something so visual was really eye-opening as we really can convey so much in image without a lot of words. That might sound totally obvious when studying an illustration course but given that I write so much for work, it doesn’t necessarily come naturally either!

Instruction-type illustration is not necessarily my favourite kind of illustration that I have done so far but I can appreciate the keen need to think about what people will instinctively and quickly understand without having words while also being easily accessible and readable. In an ever-more visual world that moves at an ever-increasing pace, this kind of illustration is important! It made me think about day to day things we just automatically know the meaning of like street signs, washing instructions on clothes labels, danger signs, icons and directions signs: so much is very intuitive and context specific. Even when I was thinking about how to indicate temperature, little flames or a thermometer were the first images that popped into my head. I think what is perhaps more challenging is trying to come up with visuals for things that are not as known or more complex than making a cup of tea. It is also a really good way to learn how to simplify drawings to capture meaning.

I don’t always have access to a scanner and the weather has been very dull the past week so getting bright enough photos without using a flash that can change colours was a bit difficult and I had to lighten and play with the colours on photoshop to get the right balance and light. I have also tried under direct sunlight at times or not using flash but will continue to play around with that so I can enhance the quality of the final mock ups.