I had decided the concept for the front of my box which was to create a doorway scene, as if when people opened the book they were 'opening the door on Yankee candle'. I had to keep in mind the traditional aesthetic of Yankee candle and create a scene that is considerate of this. I began looking at different doorways for inspiration, as many doorways could be traditional but not in keeping with the brand.
I loved the simplicity of this doorway, and the simple impressions on the door, placed against a traditional red brick background. However this door did seem slightly too modern for the current aesthetic of the brand, as the doorway is quite minimalist.
I found that this doorway breathed the essence of Yankee candle, the layered impressions, and concrete framework are reminiscent of the edwardian era. However I wanted to find an edwardian door with more detail and so I began to look further.
I found that this was a perfect representation of what I needed for the Yankee candle brand, Edwardian and traditional, the door has some detail, however is not overly individual as the image shown above, but is more general. The Backdrop also uses the traditional red brick already seen in some Yankee candle merchandise.
With an image in mind of the kind of scene I wanted to use, and the style in which I should complete this, I drew up a sketch based upon what I had found, taking the most appropriate parts of each design and adding extra details such as the candle lit lantern (Yankee candle).
The style which I need to complete this in needs to be resemble current Yankee candle style, in which gradients and authentic textures to give illustration a realistic feel. Such as that seen on the Yankee candle sweet shop and house sets.
I scanned in the illustration of the door I had done and digitally mocked up the outline of this:
I started to think about how I could make parts of the illustration look realistic, I started working with the shrubs at either sides of the door. I made two different petal shapes and layered them on top of eachother until this part of the illustration was totally covered.
Once I had done this I selected half of the leaves and gave them a green gradient, taking the other half of the leaves I gave them the same gradient however I rotated it 180 degrees to give the piece more differentiation. Adding the gradient instead of using flat colour as I normally do when using colour, allowed the design to start to look more true, and credible to past Yankee design.
I applie the gradients to other elements of the design such as the shrub branches and the lantern hanging above the door. On a new layer I created the title section using the fonts and colours used throughout the Yankee candle brand Book antigua and Halo hand letter.
I used the same idea on the door layering gradients in order to create the illusion of the square shaped impressions/ imprints into the wood using a classic deep red seen throughout Yankee candle branding. I also applied this to the concrete frame surrounding the door.
However I felt that the use of these gradients by themselves did not solely create the true to life image (textures) that the design needed in order to be recognised as part of the brand. For this reason I look into playing with textures in illustrator.
The first section I played with was the slabs of stone underneath the door used to represent the pavement. The gradients made the stones look to perfect and so I looked into illustrator textures where I found one called grain. The grain texture made the surface of the section appear rougher and less perfect creating a more honest reflection of the object it was mimicking rather than an immaculate yet more false impression.
I went back to the lantern I had previously illustrated and looked at textures which could make the refraction of light look more realistic. I way in which I edited the piece was pixelating the background in a crystallised effect, much how light would look when passing through a multi faceted surface.
I went back to the illustration of the shrubs I had previously done and took the same crystallisation effect and placed it upon all of the leaves. I found that adding these textures made parts of the design look less ideal, and more sincere to the object that they were representing. And once viewed altogether, would create a realistic looking representation of a scene, rather than a fanciful image.
Lastly I applied the traditional red brick texture into the background, I choose red brick over any other type such as sandstone as I thought this would suit the vernacular of the country and colour scheme more than any other. Instead of attempting to create and mimic my own red brick pattern, I sourced a brick texture from online, with a 1mm mortar gap in between each of the bricks. I wanted one that was not too clean cut (unrealistic) and not too industrial, A slightly weathered brick would match the overall brand aesthetic, much like the bricks seen on previous Yankee candle merchandise (sweet shop).
Once I had this texture I imaged traced it in to illustrator so that the appearence of the background match the rest of the design I had already Illustrated. I did this in a 16 colour image trace so that the texture would keep its natural imperfections and identity. I felt that this was a better method than drawing the pattern out brick by brick, as a natural appeareance is what I really wanted to pin down.
Below is the finished front of the box:
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