P4. Promotional Communication Series
Introduction.
In this project, we will be creating two deliverables for marketing Summer Fridays at the Frick for Summer 2021 — one poster and one Facebook banner. The key to this project is being able to strike a balance between form and function while also incorporating previously learned Gestalt principles and typographic principles to these projects.
Exercise: Pen Tool (3/22).
For this pen tool exercise, the main purpose was to get acquainted with anchoring and using the direction handles to trace outlines of shapes. In this exercise, I traced the outline of the penguin using the pen tool. I made sure to orient handles in appropriate ways to get the curvatures I needed.
It took a couple tries to get oriented with using the pen tool, specifically with holding and dragging my mouse to get the right handles. While I think the outline could still use a bit of refining around the edges near the foot and beak areas, this exercise was a really good introduction to using the pen tool!
Exercise: Pathfinder (3/22).
Another exercise I did was using different pathfinder shape modes in Adobe Illustrator to recreate this robot. The four shape modes used were unite, minus front, intersect, and exclude, where these purposes were highlighted in the exercise instructions.
It was pretty fun experimenting with the different shape modes to manipulate the original circle and square shapes! I definitely had some trouble remembering how each shape mode transformed the objects, but getting to play around with these modes will definitely be helpful in creating elements for my poster/banner.
Research on The Frick Summer Fridays (3/22).
After going through the resources given in the Project 4 brief, the Summer Fridays series at The Frick seems like a relaxing way to spend time outdoors with friends and family to enjoy Pittsburgh arts and culture. Each Friday, visitors are presented with an exquisite food scene from local food trucks, as well as a range of performances from the Afro-American Music Institute, R&B’s The Soul Merchants, and other jazz artists. While there are a lot of cultural art exhibitions and events, visitors are more than welcome to break out the picnic blankets to lounge on the North Lawn and enjoy the sunset and stars.
Poster Info/Moodboard (3/22).
To kickstart the poster brainstorming session, we were first assigned to create moodboards with general aesthetics and ideas we had. After looking at some of the summer events, I naturally pictured bright sunny days at Frick Park — picnicking with friends, eating good food from local food trucks, listening to live music as the sun set, and doing lots of relaxing activities with loved ones. Because of this, I went with a brighter color palette to evoke a lively, carefree mood, while also wanting to emphasize nature colors. This included lots of yellows, greens, and pinks, as well as natural imagery like flowers, meadows, and trees.
As for the information to include in our posters, the text was given to us in the project brief.
Title: 2021— Summer Fridays at the Frick
Description:
Hypothetically with covid restrictions lifting at this time, this summer every Friday from July 2 through Sept 3, 2021, the Frick will offer an exciting and diverse lineup of entertaining performances. The 10-week, outdoor-focused series features a variety of musical performances, activities for children and families, and other entertainment appealing to all ages.
The date, time, and location of the event:
Dates — Fridays July 2 — Sept 3, 2021
Time — Open Fridays from 10:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m., Performances begin at 6:30 p.m.
Location — 7227 Reynolds St. Pittsburgh, PA 15208 — North Lawn on The Frick Grounds
Relevant ticket information including price, how to purchase, etc:
Admission-free performances are held on the North Lawn on the Frick grounds beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Relevant Ticket Information — Tickets presented upon entry
Admission to the Frick grounds for everyone — FREE
Admission to the Car and Carriage Museum — FREE
All admissions and tours for Frick members — FREE
Facebook Banner/Moodboard: A Midsummer Frick Swing (3/24).
When reading through the individual events offered by Summer Fridays at the Frick, the event that appealed to me the most was A Midsummer Frick Swing. The description made me picture very lively dancing vibes, as well as imagery relating to musical instruments and notes. I want to use very bright yellows and golds to capture the essence of this swing era.
I compiled my ideas for color palettes and banner concepts into this moodboard:
The event information is as follows:
July 30: A Midsummer Frick Swing
Franktuary, Pittsburgh Burrito Bus, Oakmont BBQ Company, Steel City Chimneys, and Stickler’s food trucks
For the second year in a row, young and old alike will unite in dance and delight on the lawn. This year, enjoy swingin’ on a Friday night with the Tuesday Night Big Band as they take you on a nostalgic musical trip to back to the Golden Era of big band swing.
Poster layout ideas (3/28).
When drafting the initial thumbnails for my poster and Facebook banner, I went to Pinterest to search for inspiration. I looked at common themes in summer festival posters, where many of them included related imagery to nice weather, sunsets, and nature. For more specific events such as music festivals or carnivals, these posters incorporated imagery relating to these events, such as guitars and ferris wheels.
The layout of the text also varies across designs, where some of them have columns of text to one side accompanied by imagery, text located towards the four corners, and text for the title written really largely in the middle of the poster.
When making my designs, I will keep all of these in mind.
Initial Thumbnails (3/29).
I made 3 thumbnails for both the poster and Facebook banner. I made sure to match the set of 3 hues across pairs of posters and banners, which are seen below. I created these sketches in Procreate and drew all of the graphics by hand.
For poster 1, I wanted to capture the warmth and romance of summertime, which is my reason for picking the pink and yellow hues. I got reminded of hanging lights when I thought back to my summer memories, and included the yellow circle to play off the light of the moon. I wrote the event title along the string lights to promote continuation for the viewer, as well as balanced negative space and text placement.
For banner 1, I utilized this same color palette and used the concept of jazz instruments and a microphone. I tried incorporating similar continuation using the musical notes across the words. With the text, I wanted to use a balance of script and all capital letters for creating hierarchy.
In poster 2, I wanted to evoke viewers’ emotions of wanting to capture the memories of summer in a photograph, which is why I chose a Polaroid camera as the main graphic. I experimented with a brighter shade of yellow for more of a summer vibe, and used the Polaroid film to display the event info. I’m still experimenting with the title placement, but playing with the font size and style might help me decide.
In banner 2, I used the silhouettes of a couple dancing to convey the “dancing in the moonlight” concept, where the yellow circle in the background represented this. I really liked how the white text and music notes looked on the colored background, as I felt this drew the appropriate attention to these elements.
For these designs, I decided to change up my color palette to reflect more natural, earthy colors. In poster 3, the imagery of the bicycle and dandelions flying in the wind really embodied summer to me. I used the dandelion fuzz floating away for the viewer to follow along, putting some text info above it. This leads the viewer to the rest of the event information on the left-hand side.
In banner 3, I similarly used an instrument (this time a trumpet) as the main imagery, and used the “noise” to draw the viewer’s attention and place the event title. In this design, I like the negative space that was created in the left side of the composition, as I feel this balances out with the information presented. However, I’m not sure if I like how the color palette played out with the elements in this design, so I will revisit this.
For each of these designs, I wanted to choose a script-based family and a more block-y shaped family to balance out the playfulness and informational feel to these designs. For this reason, I have chosen Avenir and Savoye LET Plain: 1.0.
Digital Iterations (3/31).
In my first poster iteration, I applied the color palette and typography I chose to my poster 3 design. For the title, I made sure to align the words both horizontally and vertically, where I had to adjust the kerning for “Fridays” since it was originally tightly squished together. I also lined up the description paragraph with this title.
To show the “moon” element across my series of designs, I incorporated a yellow circle and placed ticket info inside it. I also liked the aesthetic of placing the brown circle next to the yellow one to include more information.
To draw the viewer’s eyes to the date and time information, I incorporated dandelions flying in the air, and placed location info along that.
I imported my sketches of the bicycle and dandelions from Procreate on my iPad and have yet to experiment with colors in Illustrator for these elements.
In my first banner iteration, I wanted to make it look like a ticket, hence the placement of the date and free admission info in the upper left corner. I incorporated the moon motif here, where I had the idea of a couple dancing in the moonlight thus placing their silhouettes there. The swift, flowy movement of the musical staff likewise connects to the swift motion of the dandelions floating in the wind in my poster. I felt that these elements were subtle yet effective ways into connecting these two pieces.
1:1 Session with Ji (3/31).
During my 1:1 session with Ji, I got very helpful feedback for iterating my designs.
For my poster, the main critique was establishing hierarchy, especially when placing the information. Since the date, time, and location of the event were the most important information, Ji suggested placing them closer to the top. She also mentioned that placing white text on a yellow background is generally difficult to read, so I experimented with darker colors. Since I wanted to keep the yellow circle as a connecting element between my poster and banner, Ji suggested placing it in the upper left corner and playing around with the size to try different layouts.
The same critique about the white text on yellow background applied here, so I also changed that around. Ji also pointed out that using a dark brown color for the date/ticket info might draw too much attention away from the main title. To further emphasize the La La Land concept of the couple dancing in the moonlight (thanks Ji for noticing that concept :) !), Ji suggested making the background even darker for a night time vibe.
Digital Iterations continued (4/3).
After revising my drafts, this is how second iterations turned out:
I decided to switch out the tan color for a brighter summer color, so I chose pink since the color combination reminded me of pink lemonade! I used different hues of the pink shade as well as different font sizes to establish hierarchy for the date, time, and location. Placing this info in the resized circle felt like a more efficient use of space compared to my last iteration. However, I had trouble wrapping the text to match the outline of the circles, so I will bring this up during critique/1:1 sessions.
I also applied color to the bicycle, incorporating this color palette as best as I could. Since I couldn’t use green for the leaves, I chose white instead, but I’m not sure if I like the contrast with the rest of the colors. I might change it to a pale brown or pink for my next iteration.
I incorporated the adjusted color palette here as well, making the background darker brown as Ji suggested. To further add to the night sky idea, I added white sparkles using the pen tool within the yellow “moon.” Even though white is difficult to see on a yellow background, I thought it was more appropriate here since I was using it for drawings rather than text.
Digital Iterations continued (4/6).
Based on Anna’s optional critique session, I updated my digital iterations as seen below:
After presenting Anna with my last set of drafts, there were a couple big updates I made to both my poster and banner. The first one was the color palette. In my previous drafts, I really liked the pink and yellow I picked, but the contrast between these two colors was lacking. Anna suggested using the colors above, going for an overall darker, starry night theme which I felt fit well with my design concepts. I also felt that incorporating these colors into the bike illustration in my poster made it stand out a lot more, which worked well. I increased the scale of the bike for greater effect as well.
Another large change was the way I chose to incorporate the large yellow circle in my poster. In my previous set of drafts, the purpose of the circles seemed unclear, where I placed them for more of an aesthetic design. However, I chose to make the circle in my latest draft represent the moon, where I resized it and moved it to the upper corner to emphasize this. I also wanted to create continuation when reading the information, so I placed the dandelion saplings to “move” towards the moon, which I felt effectively guided the viewer’s eyes. The ticket information was difficult for me to place, but I ended up putting it along the pathway of the saplings.
As for the banner, there weren’t many large changes I made other than altering the color palette. I changed the font of the “free admission” to Avenir rather than Savoye LET Plain: 1.0, since the script looked out of place next to the date.
Group Interim Critique (4/7).
I presented the above drafts to the group interim critique. After last project, I had a better idea of what to expect from this session, so I was looking forward to receiving feedback from my peers via the Google sheet. After reading their comments, I was glad to see that my moon/swing dancing concept was well-received and clear. A couple of my classmates gave suggestions to make the moon a brighter yellow, the brownish tint it was giving seemed dull.
I also received a couple comments about the hierarchy of my piece, where the title didn’t stand out as much as some of the other illustrations/elements. Ji’s resource for checking the contrast of title text on a background color helped out soooo much, especially when I was testing out the contrast “score” of the titles in my designs.
Based on these comments, I further iterated my drafts.
Digital Iterations continued (4/11).
After the group interim session and Anna’s optional feedback session, I updated my drafts. Anna’s comments can be seen below:
A major change I made was my choice for the second type font used. I realized that I hadn’t used it in my poster, mainly because I felt that the script-style was very hard to read. After exploring different fonts to pair with Avenir, I decided to go with Didot. Didot seemed to have an elegance to it, and since I was going with a swing dance concept, I thought it would be a nice touch to add to the poster to make it feel more like a series. I wrote the location and time information in Didot, as well as the ticket information.
I boosted the saturation on both the yellow and blue colors to make the designs feel more vibrant. I also added a white area to the bottom of my poster to break up the blue space. I experimented a lot with where to place it and settled on having it closer to the bottom half. However, I’m not sure how well this works since it resembles snow to me rather than a more summer-y element but hope to get feedback on this. Additionally, I shifted the dandelions down to bleed off the page.
In my banner, I decided to switch the font and color of the red text to yellow and Didot, since yellow contrasted much better with dark blue. To incorporate the red color, I thought it would be cool to apply to the silhouette of the couple dancing, where the girl had red stilettos and the guy had a red bowtie. Additionally, I think that using Didot with Avenir worked pretty well here, and I hope to get feedback on this.
After applying these critiques, here is how my updated iterations turned out:
1:1 Critique with Ji (4/12).
I presented my updated designs to Ji during our 1:1 session today. I mainly wanted feedback on the typeface pairing I chose, the placement of the ticket information, and the way I broke up the blue space in my poster. She gave lots of helpful comments and feedback, which I used to updated my work for Wednesday’s final critique!
For the typeface, she pointed out how Didot is commonly used for headings and titles rather than body text (which is what I did oops!), and suggested I look online for common font pairings with Avenir. After searching, a couple sources suggested pairing a sans-serif font with a serif font. Since Avenir is a sans-serif font, I looked at serif fonts and tried out a couple before settling on ITC Souvenir. I liked how round the characters were and felt this paired well with Avenir’s blocky style.
For the body text, Ji suggested keeping everything left justified and decreasing the leading in the main paragraph to avoid cluttering. For the white background space at the bottom, I made the slope less drastic and also made it a blueish-gray color to better fit with the blue hues I had. I matched the clouds to this color, and also spaced them out to make them look more interesting.
In my banner, I applied ITC Souvenir to the title and “free admission” text, playing around with the weighting of the text.
My updated designs are seen below:
Final Group Critique (4/14).
During this final critique, I was really amazed with the variety of ideas that everyone came up with in making their posters and banners! Different type fonts and color palettes were all used to convey what summer meant to each person.
When giving feedback to classmates, I made sure to pay attention to how they used craftsmanship and hierarchy in their designs. To establish hierarchy, many people changed the weighting, color, and font of the text, and played around with the placement. Craftsmanship really showed through with how illustrations and drawings were used to complement the event information.
I really liked being able to talk about the inspiration of my work and the parts I struggled with the most. Getting feedback from my classmates about how they liked the color palette I picked, which was really nice to hear considering how much I struggled with it. Someone mentioned trying to incorporate the grayish blue in my banner as well, to make the series feel more connected. Anna also caught the orphan in my poster, which I fixed in my final iteration. After taking this criticism into account, my final designs turned out like this:
Reflection (4/15).
After going through the entire process of making these poster and banner designs, I learned a lot about how the combination of color and typography can be used to effectively convey event information. Making sure colors were saturated/bright enough, while also making sure that there was enough contrast in color between the text and background was something very rewarding to learn about. Also, establishing this series and connecting the designs through the incorporation of similar elements was another rewarding challenge for me.
With regards to the typography, I was amazed at how different font pairing could convey a whole different vibe and message. For example, I paired Avenir with Didot in one of my earlier iterations, and this font pairing made the poster feel more sophisticated and elegant, which didn’t really match the summer, carefree vibe I was going for. After switching the pairing to Avenir and ITC Souvenir, the designs felt much more refreshing. I felt that the playfulness of Avenir mixed with the bounciness of ITC Souvenir really brought the two pieces together in the end.
Overall, I really enjoyed working through these designs using Illustrator and Procreate. I enjoy using Procreate in my free time, so it was cool being able to mix this hobby into the work for this class. Using the “Layers” tool was very helpful in separating text, illustrations, and background from each other, making this process a lot easier. I definitely became a lot more comfortable with Adobe Illustrator after using it for this project, so I’m really happy with how everything turned out!
