I tried various references through out the design.

The car is the blue Mustang, also represesented by the horse on the spine. Which is derived from the Mustang emblem.

The horse also refers to the main character Ponyboy and the galliant riders from Gone With the Wind.
 

The soda bottle is for the character Sodapop and to refer to Ponyboy's Pepsi addiction.

After completing the black and white stage I begin to add colours and textures, though I may revert back to this stage several times over to recompose the layout as the design develops and changes.

I began playing with the grass texture as away to contrast the concrete, showing a contrast from the urban neighbourhood and rural church.

I moved away from using textures and began developing vector images to add to the design.

In this way I was able to add another dimension to the design and reference aspects of the story in a new way.

This was the final design sent into the Puffin competition,

This is a print ready version evolved from the previous image, on which the horse did not show up when printed.