Whilst playing around further on illustrator, restricting my use of shape in a variety of ways, I stumbled upon this shape. I don't know what you'd call it, it's like a combination of two quarters of a circle. Anyway, through further play and experimentation with it I came to realise that it is incredibly versatile and has the possibility to be used in a huge variety of ways to create many an image.
I have now continued developing my ideas (slightly back tracking) with the predominant use of this shape; I am still yet to decide whether or not the images would benefit from the inclusion of any other shapes, such as circles maybe or squares - keeping it strictly simple.
The images below show some of the character development so far through the restriction of using this set of shapes alone. I really like the conciseness of the imagery and the way that it links all of the different countries and cultures together through a similarity in their form.
It is a bit of a stress having this Eureka(!) moment at this point in the brief as time is beginning to run thin. However, after discussing with Danni (collaborative partner), we have both agreed that this is the best way to push the book further in the right direction. So the texturing and more abstract shapes will be replaced with this. Hopefully providing a cleaner, sleeker and slightly more graphic style to the book.
