TYPOGRAPHIC POSTER SERIES
PROJECT OBJECTIVE
The goal was to develop a cohesive typographic poster series. Each poster is designed to promote and showcase an individual poet who exemplifies the concept of being “Against the Machine”. The posters are intended to be distinct from one another, yet maintain a clear connection among them through recurring design elements.
RESEARCH
Understanding the poets and their ideas is essential for creating an effective poster series that accurately represents each of them while maintaining a cohesive design.
EXPERIMENTAL TYPE STUDIES
To begin, I experimented with physical materials and type to generate rough ideas for sketching. The ones showcased below are a mix of traditional compositions and those that have been digitally altered. Exploring ideas of obscurantism, disorder, and rebellion became my focus.
SKETCHES
When sketching, I primarily used geometric shapes instead of organic ones to emphasize the sterile, automated nature of machinery.
TYPOGRAPHY EXPERIMENTATION
Six sans-serif typefaces were tested below to identify which most effectively evokes a robotic and sterile appearance. Serif typefaces weren’t considered because they tend to appear more traditional and comforting at times, which doesn’t suit my purpose.
DIGITAL IDEATION PROCESS
These are ideations of the T.S. Eliot poster. This process was spent attempting to find the style that worked best for creating a poster series. The one on the far right is what moved on to the iteration phase.
DEVELOPING THE PALETTES
While I aimed to keep a consistent design framework across all the posters for a unified look, I also believed that each needed its own unique touch. It was important to give each poster a distinct color palette that reflects the ideas and themes conveyed by the respective poet.
To me, the work of T.S. Eliot often evokes imagery that feels more industrial or "procedural." I associate this type of imagery with the color orange, as it is commonly used in construction and mechanized equipment.
Andrea Abi-Karam's poetry is unfiltered and pushes boundaries. Their exploration of queerness and gender inspired me to incorporate shades of blue and pink into their work, reflecting these themes.
I associate Code-davinci-002 with cynicism and isolation, concepts I wanted to capture using a yellowish-gray color. The idea for the sickly yellow-green shade came from envisioning it as the font color for lines of code.
POSTER ITERATIONS
When creating iterations for the other poets, I followed a similar composition to the T.S. Eliot ideation I chose. Some posters needed more iteration than others.
PENULTIMATE ITERATIONS
These were the designs made for the final critique. Although they appeared mostly unified and intentional, they still needed some work.
FINAL DESIGN ELEMENTS
Includes the final color palettes for all three posters, the typeface and sizes I used, the unique elements, and the background colors.
FINAL POSTER SERIES
I reworked the designs from the final critique and created a more cohesive kit of parts to keep the posters unified. Each poster also now has a different background than one another.
