Project 4: Poster Series

Introduction:

In this assignment, we were tasked to create a poster series that was visually appealing but also communicated an event. The posters needed to introduce an overall event that had three separate parts. This would be something like three artists for an event or three days of an event. The posters needed to communicate that they were all part of one big event. But at the same time they needed to communicate that they were different parts of an event.

We imagined that we were creating a festival with three events. We were given a lot of freedom. We could make up our own event or use an existing event. We also needed to include a variety of information about the event.

We needed to use many skills in this project. First, we needed to incorporate what we had learned previously about typography. We needed to find a font that represented the information and event. We also needed to play with sizes of the font and typeface as well as ordering. This all tied in with hierarchy. We needed to prioritize what we put on the poster and we used typography to do it.

In addition, we learned more skills and concepts that would help us with hierarchy like color and grids. We learned what colors work well together as well as different concepts like hue and saturation. We also saw many examples of how you can use color to your advantage in terms of hierarchy. Color can be used to highlight important elements or information.

We learned how a grid can create organization on your poster as well as order. It can help you create a series of posters that are “different” in layout but rely on the same rules of order. We also learned about different kinds of grids. Some are useful for posters while others work better in books or newspapers.

One of the biggest skills we learned for this project was illustrations. We learned how to create illustrations using many tools and tricks in illustrator.

This assignment was tricky because we needed to tie all of these aspects together to create THREE posters. We had to express our ideas using all of these concepts to create something that communicated what we wanted.

I decided to create a poster series about weddings that I had though up on my own. I wanted to achieve a poster that was elegant but also springy. I wanted it to seem graceful and simple at the same time. I also wanted to challenge myself by not putting the information in the same place on the posters. I wanted to play around with my grid to create something that looked interesting but still looked like part of a series. I wanted to create a poster series that had hierarchy, incorporated color well, and used a grid appropriately.

Initial Sketches and Inspiration

These are my first initial sketches. At this time, I was unsure if I wanted to do a food event or a wedding event. So I did some research and found inspiration I liked. Here is what i found…

Inspiration for my make it, eat it, and grow it idea. I really liked the idea that the three concepts could make a series. I could not find a series for inspiration but I found this singe poster and I really liked the idea. I thought I could make this concept very interesting and eye catching.

These are the first sketches I started with. Here I was inspired by a “grow it," “make it,” and “eat it” theme. I thought this would be interesting theme because I could create fun and playful illustrations. I decided to ditch this theme because I struggled to create an event that made sense. I made up this idea and I couldn't think it through very well. I also struggled with the “make it” part of the design. I found that it was difficult to draw “making food” and I didn't like what I came up with.

Next, I looked for inspiration for other ideas. I thought of bridal because the spring season is soon. I really like the elements that go along with weddings: dresses, flowers, and food. So I did some research and found the three posters below. A lot of the posters I saw had a big illustration. They all included items that I thought went very well with a wedding. So from here I decided to do a spring wedding event and use flowers, gowns, and cakes as my main events for the overall event.

Here is an inspiration with flowers.

Here is a bridal dress inspiration.

Here is a cake inspiration.

Here is my first illustration. I decided to sketch big illustrations. I first tried large flowers in the center of the page, then I tried to move the objects off of the page a little bit. So I drew the dress half off the page and the cake hanging off the page for more interest.

Here I decided to put everything in the same place. I wanted them to hang off of the page. I then placed the titles all in the same place with descriptions. I thought this design looked very orderly and was easy to see it was a series. I tried to create some more interest in the poster.

Here I made the images a little smaller so that they didn't dominate. Then I put the titles in the top corner then the descriptions in the bottom left corner. This design had a three column grid.

Digital Iterations — Breath

Here are my first digital iterations. Here is where I spent the most time on my designs. I played around with all of the different tools. I spent a lot of time learning how to use each one. It looked very simple during the tools demo, but in reality it was very challenging to get the lines where I wanted them. In working with the tools, I learned a lot about what style of illustration I liked. I explored a lot of different illustrations but I kept editing the same illustrations so it is hard to see the breath.

This picture above shows my flower designs. I traced over a picture of white lilies. I thought they were very “wedding” like and seemed to go well with the spring. I saw them in many bridal bouquets and they look very elegant. Here I used the pen tool to trace over a lily I found on google. I decided to free hand the middle of the flower to make it look more natural. I also incorporated green leaves for a pop of color. For my font choice, I wanted something that looked graceful so I played around with cursive looking fonts. I thought these fonts would match my design style at the time. I played with the designs being half on the page or in the middle of the page (like in my sketches). I played with blue and purple backgrounds for a playful look, I ended up really liking the purple and white contrast.

Here is my wedding cake sketches. I decided to draw a white cake. Here it is not decorated but I like the clean shape. I tried it off the edge and in the center. I think it looked more like a cake in the middle.

Here is my first wedding dress sketch. I really liked my dress. I was very happy with how it turned out. Sketching the dress took me a very long time. I did each layer and used a photo of a dress I loved for inspiration. I loved the movement that the dress created and I think it went well with my elegant theme. Here I tried purple again because I liked the contrast with the white.

This design shows the dress off the page. I didn't like this as much because it looked a little clumsy. I like the pink and white contrast more than the purple.

Here is my original color palate. I wanted to play with pastels or elegant colors. I tried to play around with the hues and saturations in illustrator. I ended up really liking pastel blue, pink, and purple. I felt they looked springy and happy. They reminded me of a spring wedding.

Digital Iterations — Depth & Breath — First

Here are my designs from the first critique. Here I added in my information. I played around a lot with my designs to get to this point. I added information and placed it all in the same place. I also created a logo using a small dress and a small groom. In addition, I switched the font. I wanted a more elegant font that was easier to read. So I ditched the cursive and went more simplistic.

For this design, I decided to use a very awkward column grid. I used a very large column on the right and a very small grid on the left. In the middle I had an off center grid. I had the Title break the grid and and the illustration fall in the middle grid. I decided to use purple on all the posters because I like the contrast and I just played with the hues. I came up with famous cake designers and created a small description of the events.

Here I used different shades of purple from above. I used the same grid and did so so that the grid would be very clear that it was a series.

Here I played with the same grid as before and used different hues of the purple I liked. I really liked how large the font was.

Feedback from this session:

From this session, I received a lot of feedback. On the positive side, I was able to create strong illustrations that matched the event. The class though that my grid was awkward and didn't seem to exist, which I agreed with. They also thought I should use more color. In addition, the class though some of my font was too large and I needed to add some variation in the text. Brendon also recommended that I tried to overlap the title with the illustration. Here is an example…

Digital Iterations — Depth & Breath & Feedback — Second

Here are my design that I posted to slack. Here I tried to challenge myself by creating a series that relied on the grid and colors to create a series. I added in more fun colors as well. I also tried to overlap my image with the title.

This design and the design below were my VERY improved designs from before. I took a lot of the feedback into consideration. First I redid my grid. This took me a lot of time to get right. I made a 4 column grid with gutters. I put the dark stripe in one the columns to make the grid a little more clear. I tried to balance the illustration on the stripe and keep it a little off centered at the same time. I really liked how clean the grids were and how much more like a series these posters looked. I also played with the text. I used bold and bigger sizes to emphasize what was most important and what I wanted people to look at.

I included this screenshot because you can see one of the many small changes I made. If you look at the purple title, you can see that I had the words closer together in the first drawling. I made MANY small changes like this. I played with the colors of the font, the organization in the grid, and many more elements. Here is just one example.

Here is another design from that series. Here I added blue. I wanted to add more fun colors into my designs. I used the same grid. I tried to move the illustrations and title around. I also tried different locations of the information but had it stay in the grid.

Here is the last poster in this series. I decided to go back to pink. Again, I played with the layout of the poster by playing with the information. I tried to move the information around. I wanted to put the title closer to the center. I also moved the stripe to a different column.

Feedback: The feedback I received was that my information was too close to the edges, which I totally agreed with. Some people were unsure of the overlap of illustration with the text (but I liked it so decided to leave it). Some people wanted to see more contrast. Lastly, people wanted more variation in the text.

Digital Iterations — Depth & Breath & Feedback — Third

Here are my last digital iterations. I decided to fix my grid. I made a 4*4 grid but I used more gutters and had larger margins. I also moved the whole event title and I used a font that Brendon recommended, that I like much better. I played with the contrast of my fonts and I also used more bond fonts. I heavily relied on the grid for my series. I wanted to make the posters different and challenge myself.

Final Feedback

The final feedback I received in class for the final critique made a lot of sense. The class thought that my organization made it unique but a little challenging. They also thought the cake should have been white. They also wanted me to place the information in the same place. Overall, they liked my colors but wanted more contrast. They also liked the stripe and the illustrations. Some people really liked my typography and hierarchy.

Reflect

Overall, I was proud of my designs but the critique made me doubt some elements.

In retrospect I wish that I had used the same structure for my posters. The most successful posters in class had the information in the same places. I think I tried to do too much and challenge myself too much. I should have used a straight forward layout. I think this layout would have been more successful.

I also wish I would have used more contrast. I think some of it was harder to read that I thought it would be.

I also wish I would have made the cake white. The more I think about it, I cannot believe I made it purple.

I learned A LOT about color, grids, and illustrations. I learned how to make a grid and how to fill it out. I also learned how hard it can be to choose colors. In addition, I learned all about illustrations in illustrator.