Project 4: Promotional Communication Series

Introduction

The goal of this project is to create a poster, which is advertising “Summer Fridays at the Frick”, which is a series of outdoor social events over the course of the Summer. On top of the poster, another goal is to create a facebook banner which advertising one of the Summer’s other more themed events.

3/24/2021

Adobe Illustrator Exercises

Pen Tool Exercise

In this Illustrator exercise, we had to use the pen tool to trace an outline of an animal from a photo of our choosing. I decided to trace the outline of this adorable cat.

Pathfinder Tool Exercise

In this Illustrator exercise, we were given a bunch of building blocks on the file, and our goal was to recreate the robot on the left using those building blocks and the pathfinder tool.

Summer Fridays at the Frick Research

Summer Fridays at the Frick is an outdoor event with live music, a variety of food, and other events were people can gather and socialize. The Frick is a museum in Pittsburgh with lots of fine art.

Facebook Banner Event

For my Facebook banner event, I chose to go with the Neighborhood Jazz event. I chose this one because of it’s split emphasis on live music, but also food. It also celebrates African American culture in a unique way that engages the surrounding community in a welcoming way.

Mood Board

For my mood board, I decided I really loved the look of illustrations that look either completely or slightly hand drawn, with a balanced mix of brighter colors and more muted ones. I found out that there’s a fine line between minimalist digital illustrations and the more “corporate” looking digital illustrations (which I wanted to avoid for this project because it wasn’t as fitting).

3/29/2002

Thumbnail Sketches

Summer Fridays at the Frick Poster Thumbnails

For the first poster thumbnail, I wanted to emphasize that the event will be outdoors and special for the Summer. Since the Frick is near Schenley Park, I drew some trees on a hill so that it would look more similar to Schenley. I put the main event information on the middle tree, and I put other (but less important) event information on the trees on either side of the middle tree.

For the second poster thumbnail, I made the main illustration the fountain which is in front of the Frick museum, drawing heavy inspiration from one of the posters in on my pinterest mood board that was just a postcard. I felt as though the fountain made it easily recognizable as a Frick event.

For the third poster thumbnail, I made the background a picnic illustration, so that it would demonstrate that the event was outdoors, would be more of a social event, and that there would also be food at the event.

Facebook Banner Event (Neighborhood Jazz) Thumbnails

For the Facebook Banner Event, I decided to use saxophone and piano illustrations in order to convey that there would be live jazz music. In the second thumbnail, I added a dish of chicken and waffles because there was a chicken and waffles caterer listed in the event description. For the first and third thumbnails, I really like how I made lots of curves, as it makes the event banners seem more carefree and fun.

Color Schemes

On the left, I have three color schemes, one for each of the Summer Friday at the Frick Poster thumbnails. I used more muted and earthy tones, mainly using blues and greens and browns, but also incorporating some maroon and reds for the third thumbnail because of the picnic blanket and the wine. I mainly used earthy colors for the poster color schemes since the event would be taking place outdoors. On the right, I have two color schemes for the Facebook Event Banners (the first one is for the first thumbnail and the second is for the last two thumbnails). I used a balance of warmer colors (like yellow and orange) and cooler colors (like blue) in order to keep the facebook banners feel more balanced. The facebook banner colors are also very close to being complementary colors and suit eachother well.

For the facebook event banner, I might opt to use a color scheme that instead aligns with the colors of the Pan-African Flag (greens, black, and reds) in order to tie the event with it’s involvement with the appreciation of African culture.

Typefaces

For the Summer Friday at the Frick posters, I decided on using Good People by The Docallisme for the title typeface, and either Ranille by Artefak Project or Simplicity by Vanessa Bays to convey the other event information. For the facebook banner, I decided to use either Genty by Ilham Herry or Ginchiest by 38.lineart for the title typeface, and Rogart by zetafonts for the other event information. I opted to use more playful typefaces for the title typefaces to capture viewers’ attention, and then serif fonts for the other information because of its easy readability. All typefaces were found on dafont.

3/31/2021

First Drafts: Poster Digital Iterations

Using Adobe Draw on my iPad, I drew the illustrations for the posters and banners. Next, I imported the illustrations into Adobe Indesign to add the text and work on the placement of the text on the posters and banners.

Summer Fridays at the Frick Posters

For my first poster, I drew a simple tree and went with a blue, orange, and yellow color scheme. I decided to only use one big tree in my poster instead of three like in my original sketch because three seemed too crowded, and only having one tree isn’t as overwhelming to look at for viewers while still conveying the themes of being outdoors and Summer to the viewers. The text placement of the ticket prices is a bit awkward though and the title’s typeface would be better if it were different for some more variety.

For my second poster, I drew a rough minimalistic fountain, replicating the one that’s right outside of the Frick Museum. I went with a similar theme to the first poster, but the green grass makes the color scheme seem a bit less obvious. I really like how the orange title is tied in throughout the poster in the title and then in the birds as well. I think this poster’s illustration captures the Frick during the Summer really well since it’s so specific to the Frick and not just a Summer event in general.

My third poster had a different color scheme because I didn’t realize there was a rule to limit the color scheme to three hues. While it captures the main theme of the event well, I think the illustrations could be a lot cleaner and simpler.

Neighborhood Jazz Banners

For my first banner, I added lots of musical notes to my illustration in order to fill up some more negative space and add more detail to the banner. I then created a curved line on Indesign in the yellow region and wrapped the title text to it to make the poster more dynamic.

My second banner was difficult to illustrate, as it was hard to make the food seem realistic while keeping the color palette minimal. I really like the typeface I used for the title in this iteration though.

My third banner is similar to my first one due to the curves and sprinkled in music notes, and I also wrapped the title text to match the wave of the piano. I feel as though this banner could use some more music notes on the bottom too.

4/7/2021

Digital Iterations with Updates

Summer Fridays at the Frick Posters

For my first and second posters, I worked on the placement of the text and incorporating more of the orange color into the text as well. I mainly changed the placements of the dates and times to the top of the poster, and also moved around the admissions information and the location details. I also made both of the poster titles have some shading by adding a different valued hue behind the title, giving it some dimension. I also changed the second poster’s ground color to be a light yellow instead of green so that the color palette would be 3 hues and in order for the poster’s color scheme to be the same as the facebook banner’s.

Neighborhood Jazz Facebook Banner

For all of my Facebook banners, I added in the restaurant information as well as the general event information. Additionally, I changed the typefaces on all of the banners to be the same as the ones in the poster designs (Ginchy for the title typeface and Ranille for the other text’s typeface). I got rid of the food illustration in my second banner’s design since it didn’t fit the color scheme as well and cluttered the banner up. I also played around more 3D titles by using layered titles of different colors.

4/12/2021

Digital Iterations after Interim Peer Review

Summer Fridays at the Frick Posters

For my poster designs, the main changes were simply adding more music note illustrations around the landscape and around the fountain. I did this in order to convey how the event would have live music and to make the posters and event communicate how fun it would be. I also changed some of the colors of the text so that it would be easier for the viewer to read. I really liked the additional music notes for the first poster but I’m concerned about the second poster appearing more cluttered and crowded because of it.

Neighborhood Jazz Facebook Banner

In my peer critiques, I got some advice to make the background color a lighter shade of blue, so that the background would be roughly all the same value. I thought this was a great idea, and I really like how much more playful the facebook banner looks after this change. I also tested out a different sizing for the title text, to flow more with the illustration and to make it easier to read.

4/16/2021

Final Submissions

Summer Fridays at the Frick Poster

The main changes of my poster were to change the admissions ticket information, and to move it above the title. I also decided to make the yellow shading background a lot lighter since Ji told me during my critique that it would help prevent the clashing of the orange on top of the blue. Additionally, I took away some of the music notes that I had previously drew in because I wanted to demonstrate that there would be music, but I also wanted to make sure the poster didn’t look too crowded.

Neighborhood Jazz Facebook Banner

For my Facebook banner, all I did to change it was to take out the descriptive paragraph since that would be in the template information, and then I recentered the illustration and made the other information text a darker shade of blue to go along with the color scheme more and to help out with the banner’s hierarchy.

Thumbnails

Conclusion

After completing this project, I can proudly say that I feel more confident in my Adobe Illustrator/Indesign skills. I also feel like learned so much about placement of text in design projects, and color uses to emphasize hierarchy furthermore. It was also great to figure out how all of these separate components of communications design that we had learned over the semester be used altogether in this project!