This is the original map I started off with before I traced over the top for my homepage.

I mainly used the pen tool on Illustrator and wanted to create a rough but not sloppy looking vector image of the map. The colours I think needed to suit the theme and be pastel colours but still vibrant to be suitable for my target audience. It is also relevant because the seaside has quite be achy pastel looking colours so I think its appropriate.

I firstly tried representing each down with their own little icon. I thought this might look minimal and have a nice effect however because some of the seasides start with the same letter this may be confusing to the elder target audience.

I also tried with more of a solid circle shape to see if it improved the look of the letters however this failed.

I then started to play around with text and positioning them into speech bubbles as though the website is speaking directly to the audience. I think the type and speech bubble works well and is understandable. It also gives information on other places in the north-east to get a better understanding of where a bouts int he UK it is.

I also tried different coloured speech bubbles to get more of a seaside colourful feel but found this looked too messy and didn't like the affect it had.

I also tried the blue background but found it blended into the background too much and might not be legible for the viewers. I decided to stick to the white background as I thought this worked well and was legible enough for elderly and parents to see without looking too over the top.