Workshop 1
Lukasz Gradzki
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Purpose of the poster
As far as I am concerned general idea of every poster is to advertise (e.g.
event, movie, political party), to decorate (e.g. wall, room) or both.
Purpose of mine was exactly the same. I tried to make an affiche that is
pleasing to the eye and conveys a certain massage at the same time.
Piece of work that is easily noticeable, eye-catchable but not glaring.
Readable and informative. As I consider myself as a rather not gifted
graphic designer this poster from the very beginning was meant not to be
technically sophisticated. Attractive in its minimalism had to meet
requirements of the good design that we were taught about on graphic
design classes.
Thanks to u-days I came up with an idea that it might be interesting to
organize Multimedia Art Exhibition event at the second floor of the ATS
building. Students of all MMD semesters were obliged to present their own
works (posters, go cards, book covers, websites etc.) so all guest and
potential future students might had have closer look at what is the
Multimedia Design and Communication course about.
All in all, purpose of my poster was to promote Multimedia Art Exhibition,
school and MMD course itself.
Where do I want to use it / Target group
My primary objective was to get to the persons who are already interested
in graphic design, multimedia and the Internet. To young people who are
about to finish high school but maybe have no exact idea what next. Do
not know what to study and which field would they like to specialize
themselves in. Some of them „play” with Photoshop at home, some know
basis of the html and have already created few websites, some just find
Internet very interesting and believe that it is the medium of the future.
They all are the main target group. I am pretty sure that after seeing the
poster they would dig into more details by using given websites and most
probably show up at the exhibition. Once they are there, thanks to u-days
going on at the same time, they will be provided with all the details and
information about the school, courses etc. And what is more will have a
chance to take a look at a „practical” side of it which is exposition itself. It
might be a impulse for them to apply to ATS and then the goal is
achieved.
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First of all I wanted this poster to be distributed in all secondary level
schools. Bigger versions pasted on the walls and the smaller ones in form
of the flyers spreaded among pupils so message will be delivered to
everyone.
Of course the exhibition is not only for those who possibly may become
students of ATS. Everyone is invited and very welcome to come. This is
why posters also should be find in public places, on poster pillars and so
on.
I just would like to say that this paragraph describes bigger concept of
which Multimedia Art Exhibition event is only a part of. Poster itself does
not say anything about enrolment. Its main task is to make people come
to exhibition and visit websites.
What are the artistic effects
Without a doubt main artistic effect I used is simplicity. Clean, undisturbed
lines fit together into uniform whole. Three colours: black, white and cyan
give clarity, contrast and make poster easy to read. Big, blue, almost
„untouched” with a little text on it, rectangular that takes up almost 2/3rd
of all space might be interpret in many ways and consider as a
provocative – it makes viewer thinking and gains attention. Poster is
minimalistic, aesthetic and eye-friendly. At least that is the way I see it.
Use of typography
If you take a closer look at typography it is easy to recognize that the
main rule I followed was „the number 3” rule. I have used three font types
(Verdana, Impact and FashionVictim), three font sizes (37; 229; 52),
three colours (black, white, cyan) and the three vertical text areas (top,
middle, bottom). As Verdana was designed to be readable at small sizes I
obviously used it in these lines which were the smallest ones. Impact
typeface with its ultra-thick strokes, compressed letter spacing, and
minimal interior counter form specifically aimed, as its name suggests, „to
impact" was applied to the title. In order to get contrast in „Art” and make
heading more interesting I made it black and applied kind of an artistic
FashionVictim font type to it. All text blocks are aligned from the left and
the right side. Only the very bottom one is centered.
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We can also find that the words:
-
multimedia and art are lined up on the right side,
-
art, exhibition and Thursday on the left side;
In order to get this effect almost in every phrase I worked with spacing
between the letters. Proximity is clearly noticeable in right-bottom corner.
Thanks to „the number 3” rule repetition is all-over. There is contrast in
colours, font types and sizes.
Note:
In fact the „Art” word does not have the same pixel size as multimedia and
exhibition so it gives us the fourth font size. But as the difference is not that
evident, I think that „the number 3” rule still works.
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Images
I did not want to use any pictures. Found that it does not fit into a general
concept of the poster and might ruin whole composition. I am still pretty
happy that I did so.
The use of colours
Three colours are used. Black, white and dark cyan. As they are put in
order from the lightest to the heaviest one I think we can say that there is
a hierarchy in colours. Certainly they create contrast of hue. They do not
fight each other, do not supplement each other, but exist on equal terms.
White is opposite to the other two so it produces nice light-dark contrast.
As it is a neutral background colour headline is more visible. There are
two small accents of this hue which in my opinion gives kind of an
contrast of extension.
Cyan is most definitely the dominant one. Its symbolic value gives an
impression of professionalism and conveys an importance. Imagine how
this placard will look like once cyan is replaced with magenta. Its role is to
gain attention – almost everyone likes some shade of the color blue.
Black is used to emphasize and convey sophistication into the Art word. It
goes well with FashionVictim font forming together a good comparison to
the rest of the headline.
Composition
Composition of the poster is hierarchical. It consists of three, uneven
rectangular shapes. Top, middle and bottom. Top division is of the first
importance. This is where the headline is positioned. Middle part is the
biggest one and takes up almost 2/3rd of the whole exposition space. Its
function is to attract attention. Bottom one is the smallest. Gives contrast
of size and is a place where an accessory information is put.
Before I started working on the design of the poster I divided it in
accordance with „the golden mean” principles. You can find that the
border between top and middle part runs exactly in accordance with one
of the guideline of this rule. It gives great proportions, subconsciously
rivets the attention and is very eye friendly.
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Beside three main rectangular shapes there are few other that contrast
them, make poster more appealing and add variety to it. They are formed
out of the text lines.
Difference between the poster and the webpage
First difference that comes to my mind is that main webpage and
subpages that I created are more colourful then a poster. Their aim is to
provide visitor with detail information about the exhibition and refer to
other external websites. Second is the fact that a website unlike a poster
is interactive and „living”. Might reach more people, evolves and is always
accessible.
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