Assignment 4: Poster Series

Introduction

In this assignment, we had to design a series of three posters that display or advertise some arts event. We had to play with proper design hierarchy in order to make successful posters. Also, we could only use 2–3 hues includes black and white. Using these limited colors, we challenged ourselves to convey the emotion/vibe of the festivals. And the posters should able to communicate to the viewers about the informations. I tried my best to have the similar feel of the existing music festival called Lollapalooza.

Inspiration

I was inspired by the music festival posters that have vivid colors and contain geometric shapes. Since my festival has very vivid color color pallette. Also, I loved the organic/ abstract shapes they have.

Research

I decided to make the music festival poster for the Lollapalooza. It is an annual four-day music festival based in Chicago, Illinois at Grant Park. The date I am going to use is 2019 summer Aug 1 — Aug 3. Performances include but are not limited to alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock, hip hop, and electronic music. Lollapalooza has also provided a platform for non-profit and political groups and various visual artists. And I chose three artists who I like the most. They are Troye Sivan, Childish Gambino, and San Holo and I made them into the posters with their own characteristics. I made keywords for each of the artists. First Troye Sivan, himself is precious and also his songs and voice are very beautiful and delicate. Also, he has blue eyes and artfully floppy bleached-blond hair. For Childish Gambino, he is versatile. He is an actor, comedian, writer, producer, director, musician, and DJ. Therefore, I wanted his poster to have something that depicts his versatility. For San Holo, I wanted to illustrate his vibrant and energetic music style.

Exercise 1 : Grid

Initial Sketches

• The Name of the Arts Festival : Lollapalooza
• The Title of the Event: Music Festival
• The name(s) of the artist(s): Childish Gambino, Troye Sivan, and San Holo.
• One (short) paragraph about the artist(s) or the event itself: Lollapalooza is an annual four-day music festival based in Chicago, Illinois at Grant Park. Performances include but are not limited to alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock, hip hop, and electronic music. Lollapalooza has also provided a platform for non-profit and political groups and various visual artists. The four-day music festival in Grant Park. Lollapalooza is considered one of the largest and most iconic music festivals in the world and one of the longest running in the United States.
• The date, time, and location of the event (fictional): Date: August 1–3, 2020/ Time: 1pm — 10pm/ Location: Grant Park in Chicago
• Relevant ticket information including price, how to purchase, etc. (fictional): One-day passes at $99 and three-day passes are $240, purchase through online

For the sketch, I started brainstorming the words that describe each artists. For artist Childish Gambino, I made the posters looking simple yet trendy. Her music genre is house and trap which is new and unique to some of us.

The keywords for Childish Gambino are R&B, indi, unique, and pop. The keywords for Ariana Grande are fancy, pop, and decorative. The keywords for Yaeji is simple, trendy, and stylish.

I decided to change artists in order to have more distinct characteristics. Also, artist Yaeji isn’t famous as the other artists I picked so I thought it would be better to have famous artist who most people know.

house, trap/ hip hop, soul/ Pop & R&B

Moodboard

I wanted the posters to have the energetic and dynamic feel. Therefore I made the moodboard very colorful, neon, and feel enterprising. Also, I included the images of party, spotlight, and colorful gas floating. I think the middle image that has the play text represents the play button for the music since I am making the posters for the music festival.

Pen Tool Exercise

These are the illustrations I drew using the pen tool.

Color Palette

The first two color palettes I choose were about beach and night. For the one on the left, the bright greenish blue color would represnt the beach, the ivory color would be the sand, and the orange and red colors would be sun setting. The one on the right represents the night with some lights.

The three color palettes on the below are the ones I used for the final posters. I decided to have more branding of Lollapalooza. Lollapalooza music festival has a very distinct vivid color palette and font style. However, I didn’t want to keep the font they used because the shape is too solid and playful. Also, the colors I picked are the best vivid colors to viewers feel the connectivity through the posters.

First Digital Iteration

Since I’m making posters for the music festival, I wanted them to have the feel of the beach and its playfulness. I chose to use the colors that represent the palm trees, sun set, and ocean. And I used the gradient tool in order to make them feel like sun is setting. I used the Futura typeface because of its stylish elegance. I also added circular geometrics as sun. Also, I wasn’t sure about the placement of the information.

Feedback:

• More branding of lollapalooza — maybe font or color
• Make the date larger - it’s more important than the tickets or the other artists
• The date of each artist has to be different
• the date on the each posters has to be different

Second Digital Iterations

First, I tested out two different typefaces then create different compostions with some shapes. For the left one, I made it feel like a glowing sun. The Chainsmokers plays EDM, pop, and electropop, I wanted it to be bright and gleaming. The middle one which reperesents the Childish Gambino, I wasn’t sure what illustration to put in the rectangle so I left it with color purple. For the both of the Childish Gambino and San Holo posters, I included the outlines.

Feedback:

• keep them in a similar compostion
• add illustration in the Childish Gambino poster
• too many different font sizes

Third Iteration

For the third iteration, I wanted them to have the similar hierarchy and placement of the font. The most difficult thing was making some types to be highlighted or distinguished from the colors. I think I need to work more with the font size since they feel not connected and random. And I think the illustrations in the square or rectangles do give the feelings that I wanted to show. Also, I chose the three solid colors that reperesent the existed festival Lollapalooza.

Feedback:

• why some types are white and black?
• make the Lollapalooza bigger since it’s the name of the festival
• remove the bars in last poster

Final Iteration Posters

For my final iterations, I decided to make changes to the illustration of the Childish Gambino since it was the only one that has the stiff line illustration. The reason why I made the rainbow shape with various colors for the Childish Gambino poster is because I believe that he is very versatile. He is an actor, comedian, writer, producer, director, musician, and DJ. Therefore, I wanted these colors to depict his versatility. The poster for Troye Sivan has an illustration of abstract organic shapes. Troye Sivan has beautiful blue eyes and bleached blond hair. Also, his songs and voice are very beautiful and delicate. Therefore, I wanted these colorful shapes show his physical beauty and music style. For San Holo, I depicted his vibrant and energetic music style with the illustration. The various sizes of the circles make the poster feel more powerful and fun. Also, I used the white outlines in order to make them feel more lively and playful. Lastly, I intentionally made the rectangles be same sizes and connected as one.

Final Digital Banner

For my digital collateral, I made twitter banners. I decided to continue with the form of rectangle just like in the posters. I placed the white outlined texts on the right side of the banner. Also, I made the Lollapalooza big enough to easily read to the viewers compare to the other informations.

Reflection

Throughout the process, I’ve learned how difficult it is to communicate the information with limited design elements and the issues of hierarchy. The most difficult thing was making a balance between form and hierarchy. It was hard to make a balanced posters that have different number of characters. Also, I’ve learned how to create color palettes that match the theme.

If I have another chance to rework on this project, I would choose an arts festival that has a whole different feel than Lollapalooza. I would like to make posters that have more calm and silent vibe. Also, I would explore more color schemes and ways to express the contrasting themes.