Assignment 3: Type Specimen Poster (2.26.19)
“Digital design is like painting, except the paint never dries.” (Neville Brody)
Objective: use novel and previously experimented with variables to create a poster that communicates information about a single typeface; communicate hierarchy and emphasize unique characteristics of the typeface
Constraints: type, color, and background
I found this color palette very…boring. I tried to make the “FUTURA” pop more with the added depth, but still couldn’t get over how flat the background color looked. I thought Futura would work with a cool palette, yet I did not like the blue at all. I think I could have played around a bit more with a different blue, and maybe a silver/chrome (future vibes). Honestly I got a little demotivated from pursuing blue after seeing how this poster came out.
I refined the orange-based landscape poster a few times. I liked this color palette a lot better, but I discovered that the lighter orange was a bit harder to read than I initially thought after printing out a copy. I wanted to segment the poster using lines (which I forgot at first had to be made out of typeface), but this segmentation caused the poster to look unbalanced. The 2nd iteration still looked slightly skewed. I liked 4th (and 4.5th) iteration (pictured more clearly below) because I thought it showed off the geometric aspect of Futura. The 5th iteration fills space a little better than the 2nd, but I can see how viewers would still consider it to be unbalanced.
I didn’t like the B&W version too much, since it seemed very flat and unimaginative (I wonder how I could have made it imaginative if I set that additional constraint on myself?). The lighter black (dark gray), off-white, and brown palette evoked a classier feeling with a little bit of nostalgia, reminding me of old films.
Chosen to represent humanity’s message among the stars…
Although I appreciated the idea behind this poster and its iterations, in practice it did not look as refined as I wanted it to be. I ended up abandoning the format before even making a final poster with all of the required elements. I lost inspiration.
Critiques & Refinement
A lot of the critiques I received focused on my use of negative space, and I agreed that I did not utilize it very well. I realized after printing out my posters that my perception of negative space was very different from even just a couple feet’s distance than from a few inches in front of my computer screen. From a distance, I was able to see that I did not need to fill up space with the relatively little content that I had; rather, I should focus on creating effective negative space. The critiques of my work also showed me the importance of justification, which I had previously assigned a little haphazardly. I realized that I needed to connect the different elements of my posters better in order to make them cohesive, even if there was a lot of negative space.
Final Poster
Reflection
I was glad I was able to devote a little more time to this assignment, and explore more ideas. I also documented my process better by making multiple art boards for each general format.
This assignment was interesting in that we could only use type and color in order to showcase our typefaces. I was satisfied with my final product and spent more time on it than the last assignment; however, I still feel like I ran out of time and could have refined it more. Next time, I want to follow a stricter timeline and make sure that I meet the soft deadlines within the project in order to stay on top of my work while also allowing myself time to fully explore my ideas.
