Yokohama International School

Student Planner 2011-2012 Cover Design

Process
Hikaru Kawamura 9

I started with the layout of the diary, which looks like this:

I decided to make the base

background color a dark color,
either very dark brown or dark
navy blue. I decided on using
very dark brown, since it fit my
image of using red as the main
color on the cover.

Next, I decided to draw a dragon, since the dragon was a main symbol for our school. I chose to
draw my own, with pencil, and scan the paper. I traced some of the parts on the face/head of
the dragon, since it was very complicated. After that, I drew some graffiti type of drawings that
included various patterns and shapes. I decided to hide the word “YIS” inside.
Next, I took those two drawings into illustrator and traced them. Then I filled them with
color.

This is what it looked like during this process:

These are screenshots of

what I was doing during this
process. Here, I learned how
to trace specific shapes, and
render them in different
colors.
I used gradient colors for
some parts in the drawings.
After that was done, I transferred them to a Photoshop file, and dragged them to the
layout. I put them into place, where I thought was best. Then, I ended up with two
options, the one on the left, or the one on the right:

In the end, I decided to use the one on the right. After that, since the design looked a
little boring or “hard”, I decided to put some more playful design into it. And this is why I
put light-blue polka dots in the end. Then I wrote the title, which looks like this (on the
next page):