Project Five: Poster Project

Which two out of three themes of the project assignment did you choose and why?

 The two themes that I chose for this project was a poster for a fictional band and a propaganda poster for the upcoming Block Party on campus.  I decided to do a fictional band poster because all the posters that I see promoting other bands around campus and around town.  I thought that I would try to design my own poster for a band.  As for the propaganda poster, my sister who is co-coordinating the Block Party, asked me to create a poster for the event.  I actually created two posters for the event however the first one I didn’t like nor did the committee.

What compositional techniques did you employ to make your posters catch a person’s attention?

For the band (Purple) poster I used the constant color scheme of purple in the poster.  I also really got to work with layer styling and used the outer glow technique to make the photo and light sign pop out. This poster has a lot of texture with the background wallpaper and the wood gain at the bottom.  The poster is very all over the place however I think that is pulled together with the colors and style.

The Block Party poster is more informational.  In designing this poster I actually googled “block party” and got some ideas from other posters online.  I liked the simplicity of the posters I saw and the use of one image.  This poster contains a lot of information.  I like to work in black and I think the light color on top really pops and it is something that isn’t often seen.  I used the one picture of an old style lawn chair to reflect the meaning of the block party.  I think it represents the older generation bring out the old lawn chair to sit on the lawn watching young child play in the water from a broken fire hydrant while the mom’s are preparing the food.  I think it gives the ideas of how block parties were just what that happened every Saturday at the old neighborhood. Were families and friends came together to hang out.  For the poster I liked the repetition of the chairs and differentiation of colors. I changed the colors by playing with the saturation/hue on the layers.  I also posterized the chairs to give that grainy look.  I decided to use a real bold block text for the title (Block Party) and the day and date.  I used a simpler text to for the location, time, etc. information so that it is easier for the reader. I also stretched the text to fit the black rectangle hence all the different sizes and heights of text.  I think it works well.  I used spacing to group information together.  Example: “Stevenson Union Courtyard” it is all different heights and sizes however it is grouped together by the spacing distance from the time (4-7PM).  I think that it groups similar information together well.

How did you want your posters to affect your audience? In what ways do you think they succeed?

For the band poster I wanted the audience to think it was fun, edgy, and stylish.  I think the purple color really sets the mood.  Purple is such a mysterious color.  I used texture to spice up the poster more and give it that edgier feel.

For the Block Party poster I want my audience to go to the event.  I think the simplicity of the picture captures people’s attention. I like the postcard style of the poster with the fun stuff (like the hand written part of a postcard) on the left and the information stuff (like the address and postage) on the right.  It splits the design with the information.  I think this poster is fun yet gives the audience the information needed.