7,641 ISLANDS
Once a home to a large denomination of monotheistic and polytheistic religions, the Philippines is now one of the few Christian-dominant countries in East/Southeast Asia. The Philippines was once under Spanish rule and experienced many missionaries imparting Catholicism on the indigenous people there.
The Catholic faith is now an extremely important part of Filipino culture and identity. The Manila Cathedral is a landmark of Manila. It has been destroyed by natural disasters and rebuilt multiple times throughout its 500+ year life. And I decided to honor it in this travel poster.
Original sketches of the Manila Cathedral along with other important sites within the Philippines.
SO MUCH TO SEE
While I wanted to honor the Manila Cathedral, the original hope was to honor the Filipino culture as a whole. To do this I looked up and sketched different iconic sites across the Philippines including the Chocolate Hills of Bohol and the Rice Terraces of Banaue.
A new photo reference for the Manila Cathedral with its corresponding sketch and first draft of the illustration.
CHANGE YOUR VIEWPOINT
My first take on the Manila Cathedral focused more on the tower that can be seen on the left of the reference image. But I think one of the most beautiful parts of the Cathedral is its facade. I moved my viewpoint to include more of the facade and angled the vantage point to be as if you were at the Cathedral and looking up at the building.
The new, stylized color palette for the illustration.
SWITCH IT UP
Because I decided to keep my illustration fairly true to the architecture, I knew I wanted to push the realistic style with the color palette. I started with a pink/purple color palette but changed to a more cool toned palette once I realized that it didn't make the building the focus of the illustration.
The chosen typeface for this illustration.
ARCHITECTURE THROUGH TYPE
It was very important to me that the chosen type would reflect the architectural style of the Manila Cathedral. This meant that I wanted a serif with moderate stroke contrast to match the historic nature of the cathedral. Buena Park JF fit these requirements and added an extra flourish that I thought would balance out the details of the illustration.
FOR A PLACE I'VE NEVER BEEN
This piece is one of my proudest ones for two reasons. I've never been to the Philippines but I am so proud of my heritage and this piece was a love letter to the culture that has built me into who I am today. I hope to take a picture next to this cathedral if I ever get the chance to go and visit it.