After that time, I began to research on the posters under the category called illustrator. And then I am really interested in the Tom Gauld’s style.
I analyzed it and found out his style has simple elements like the cycles, triangles, and lines, which I like it so much. He also always draws stick men without eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
There is a book called “Visible Signs: An Introduction to Semiotics in the Visual Arts”, which has analyzed his works, stating he is good at using body language and visible signs to express his concept.
Tom also mentioned in the interview that his works are “a casual reduction of visual keys into a more rudimentary drawing style.”
In this book, the writer pointed out his works were done by adding simple elements on signs, which makes his work cuter and easy to understand.
In this work, he used the sign “elderly people”, and then added simple imagery, like the flag to show the element of revolution.
What I like about his work is that the image can bear different meanings by keep adding new elements to the original one. It inspired me.
Therefore, I decided to do a symbolized menu. I always have a hard time ordering from the English menu without pictures. Like the road and traffic signs, I plan to create a system of signs to help people order food.
Final Critique
After the Final Critique Session, I received some feedback. One is about deciding what kind of restaurant menu should be made. Another one is about researching how other illustrators draw the signs about food.
On the other hand, a few classmates also gave me some feedback and told me that they can understand at a glance when they saw my work because they have the same life experience as me.
Visual outcome
Regarding the choice of the restaurant category, there are two possible solutions. The first one is that I design a Taiwanese noodles restaurant menu and the audience is British. The second one is that I design a British breakfast restaurant menu and the audience is international students.
I decided to design a Taiwanese noodles restaurant menu. The main reason is that it is familiar to me and I could deal with it easily.
In order to solve the problems caused by cultural differences, I researched many Asian restaurants’ menu and its noodle icon. In my experience, the noodle icon usually shows 3 straight lines, a side bowl and a pair of chopsticks. It is a very common sign. However, I have searched many noodle’s icons and I noticed a notably different thing is that noodle is usually drawn by 3 curved lines. In order to make clients clear at a glance, I decided to use the symbols they are familiar with to make the design.
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