Poster Series Documentation

The goal of this project is to create a series of 3 posters, each for a different art event that is part of one arts festival. Each poster has to be distinctive, but should communicate that they’re part of one festival. This involves exploring issues of hierarchy and more abstract issues of expression to establish a balance between form and function. Typographic illustration and graphic shapes are encouraged, while photographic imagery is not allowed.

After some preliminary research on different types of arts events and how events can be well-manifested on a poster to attract viewers, I developed the required content for each poster, which includes:

1. name of the Arts Festival (may be fictional)
2. title of the event
3. name(s) of the artist(s)
4. short paragraph about artist or event itself
5. date, time, & location of event
6. relevant ticket information

Here is my content:

Name of arts festival: Geek Fest

Event 1: Books n’ Biscotti

Description: Thanks to the donations of Boston Public Library, we will be hosting a used book sale at the South End, featuring novels by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. There will be freshly made biscotti provided by Mike’s Pastries. Treat yourself to good reads and good eats!

Date, time, location: Sunday, August 6th 2017, 10am-5pm, 450 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA 02118

Ticket info: No ticketing

Event 2: Tech Talk

Description: For one day only, the Museum of Science will be hosting a showcase of 150 different of the newest technological innovations, from solar powered phone chargers to autonomous suitcases. Whether you’d like to get the update on the latest technologies or learn about the science underlying these modern innovations, stop by to hear these creators talk about their inventions.

Data, time, location: Friday, August 4th 2017, 10am-8pm, Museum of Science, Boston

Ticket info: No ticketing

Event 2: Movie Mania

Description: Interested in a movie marathon with friends and family? Bring your blankets and lawn chairs to Boston Common for a back-to-back showing of the Shrek movie Series in 3D, including Shrek (2001), Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007), and Shrek Forever After (2010). Don’t miss out on a night of laughs and giggles!

Data, time, location: Saturday, August 5th 2017, 5pm-11pm, Boston Common

Ticket info: No ticketing

Here are color palettes that I explored:

For my final poster, I ended up using the first three colors of the first color palette along with black. I used green for my tech event because green symbolizes growth and security and I thought that matched the nature of new technological innovations well. I used yellow for the book sale event because yellow is the color associated with intellect and inquisitiveness. I used red for the movie event because it is associated with energy, love, and action, which I believe is suitable for a movie marathon of all the Shrek movies. Finally, I used black throughout each poster because it is a powerful color that attracts attention and creates a contrast with all the other colors as well.

Here are my preliminary sketches on paper:

I wanted to incorporate the concepts of books and food together, so I tried different ways to integrate the two and also incorporate the text dynamically.

I took key elements of yoga and science, and merged them together. I played around with the hierarchy and the grid positioning.

Ed Sheeran’s albums are named after math symbols, which are closely related to the Geek Fest theme. The first sketch uses the math symbols to imitate falling stars, while the last one uses musical lines as text lines. All of them include concepts of music and geekiness.

Here was my first digital concept (after I modified my events):

I started out by drawing the 3 different types of glasses. This would create a distinction between each poster but also tie them together. Then I created a couple more formats for this basic idea.

I disliked the above version because the slanted “hosted by Geek Fest” text seemed a bit awkward and arbitrary and the title text did not seem to fit with the style.

Here are other concepts that I explored:

The concepts above did not seem to work as well because they did not seem to look like event posters. Also, the additional drawings seemed to take away from the simultaneous consistency and distinctness between the glasses.

Here were some revisions before the rough draft mini crit:

These were my final revisions:

Reflection:

In my final draft, I wanted to add something that could draw viewers in from farther away. Even though the heavy strokes of the glasses in my rough draft partially served this purpose, I did not like the bulkiness of these strokes. After decreasing the boldness of these strokes, I decided to add the dynamic triangles in the background to help engage the audience more. The triangle for each poster is two tints lighter from the background color to create some contrast. Even though I took a risk with using these triangles and they were a bit controversial during the critique, I think the posters would not have been engaging enough without them. Like one student conjectured, I tried to draw attention to the name of the whole arts events by starting the tip of each triangle at the same point, right where you’d start reading the name of the arts event.

In terms of hierarchy, I believe both my rough draft and final draft had a nice flow, despite their differences. Getting rid of some description text, definitely made it cleaner. I think an important lesson is here is to keep exploring even if you like something and it works, because I ended up creating a hierarchy that I liked even more. I also realized how easy it is to overestimate how large text actually appears when printed on posters, since the text seemed easily readable digitally, but functioned very differently when viewed on a poster from a distance.

Overall, this project allowed me to practice the concepts of hierarchy and illustration with illustrator. I particularly enjoyed this assignment because it forced me to create multiple posters that could be recognizably related, yet distinctive in clever ways. I think it was a great way to practice not only the technical skills, but also creativity.