Recently I’ve just finished 1 out of a handful of illustrations for Scholar Strategies, here’s an excerpt from their official description:

“Our mission is to guide each of our students towards successful completion of secondary school or post-secondary school preparation and application processes.”

The illustration is meant to convey what the company does, in empowering students and helping them meet their full potential. A diamond in the rough into an ace of spade, that was the visual pun I chose to implement, how obvious or how low-key it’d be is a point of decision to be made later on.

We agreed on a female mentor figure to represent the classic image of nurturing and guidance, without restricting the nature of the guidance to just one between a teacher and a student (since the company does different things than give cram lessons). The client and Anthem also asked for a softer, slightly cartoonish approach to the overall feel and execution.

The initial sketch is rough not only in quality but also rough as a conceptual phase. The kid looks a little young and the lady isn’t particularly interesting to look at. This is akin to flinging a fishing line into the pond. The only thing I kept from this is the argyle pattern on the kid’s jacket acting as the diamonds in the rough.

I enjoy the visual pun of having them act as narrative elements; transforming into the spades, representing the empowerment and knowledge the company gives to its clients.

I drafted a cleaner line-work of the image. I added the graph-like shapes to represent information. While still far from a final image, at this point there were several things I had to be increasingly more sensitive of: feedbacks of the client and how it’d be presented on the website.

The client liked the visual pun but said that something about the spades haven’t quite hit home yet. 

I sought out to implement the logo more actively into the illustration. If you’re wondering why I painted more than was asked to; I was just being safe. The logo now represents the service and empowerment they provide their clients; not to mention they frame, and complete the image better. The presentation also helps add a more modern, iconic flair to the illustration.

The complete image:

Hope you’ve enjoyed a brief insight to 1 of the many different processes an illustration might lead to. Good night, world.

Many thanks to Anthem and Jason Li for the help and over-the-shoulder feedbacks.