Illustrated Treasure Hunt Map of Tufts University

by Nate Padavick

Magazine spread containing the illustrated map
An early progress shot sent to the client in order to review color, typography, and illustration style

Client

Tufts University
Somerville, Massachusetts

Art Directors

Lina Kong, Senior Designer, Hecht/Horton Partners

Creative Brief

Tufts University commissioned Nate Padavick to create an illustrated map of campus to be used as editorial illustration for an article titled “Campus Treasure Map.”

Project Goals

As the article states “...Tufts students like to learn, create, and have fun. From study spaces to eateries, each student has a place they love.” The goal of this project was to create a stylized and playful representaion of the college’s campus with numbered pins and illustrated icons representing each of the seven sites mentioned in the article.

Project Realization

This editorial illustration was printed alongside an article in Tuft’s bi-yearly alumni magazine

Creative Process

This project was completed in three phases. The first phase was sketching. Nate presented a pencil sketch to the client that reflected the mood and details of the article. The next phase was to partially illustrate the map (seen above), so the client could evaluate the color palette, illustration style, and hand-drawn typography choice. The final phase consisted of a fully rendered map illustration, which allowed to client to see the finished product and request a final round of revisions. Due to the detailed sketch and iterative reviews, the list of revisions was minimal. The end product resulted in an illustration that was well-liked and, ulimately, used as a reference point for a subsequent commission—a 20-page “Insider’s Guide.”

Materials

This map was created in Adobe Illustrator by Nate Padavick, using vector brushes and his hand-drawn font Tallboy. AI was not used in the creation of this illustration.