Case Study: Layout Design & Watercolor Illustrations

For this project, I combined my fine art skills with my design eye to create illustrated bookmarks featuring native species found in county parks, promoting the Library Parks Pass Program. I also designed a special edition highlighting a specialty park’s tenth anniversary, incorporating a logo I created. The Santa Clara County Parks logo and brand colors inspired the final design of the bookmark layout. Hundreds have been printed and distributed to dozens of local libraries.

Above: final four bookmark designs and back of bookmark

Design Process Overview

Working with a project lead, I sourced reference images and began the design process with layout sketches. The illustrations were created using watercolor and pen, then edited in Photoshop. For the ten year design, I retouched an existing park photo. In partnership with county translators, I adapted all designs to also be in Spanish, Vietnamese, and Chinese. All bookmark designs were created in Illustrator and twenty art boards were exported for print production.

Early draft of the layout design; layout without artwork, showing bleed lines; final ten year design with bleed and registration marks – ready to send to the printer