Final Posters + Rationales

For my posters, I played off the “Clean Green New Zealand” image and various tourist imagery to highlight our homelessness problem and attitude towards it. The headline is “Experience/Explore the Great Outdoors”, riffing off tourism advertisements and creating a strong wehi when paired with the image of homelessness.

For my first poster, the main poster is large, warm, and saturated, with large paintbrush strokes giving a happy energetic feeling to fit the headline. In juxtaposition to this, there is a homeless person sleeping below on the pavement, shown in dull, cold tones and a grittier texture. They are also much smaller than the person on the poster with their head positioned under the larger hand, showing them as weaker and more vulnerable.

For my second poster, I went with the lineless style and muted, natural colours used in many old New Zealand posters. The homeless person sitting in the corner is dressed in dark browns and dull tones, in comparison to the lighter greens and blues of the nature behind them.

Both posters work with juxtaposition, moving the eye from the produced ads and headline to the reality and caption, changing the wehi from happiness and nostalgia to an unpleasant realization.

Week 6 Feedback

I showed my two designs in class today and got some final feedback before sending off to print.

On my first poster, I brightened up the colours a lot (printing was really washing them out) and changed some of the hues to make them stand out more, particularly for the mountains. I also fixed the kerning on the headers.

On my second poster, I changed the type around some more to make it visible and eye catching. I also added a little bowl next to the person to draw the eye.

After a few more text prints, I collected my files and sent them off to the printer!

Week 6 Monday

These are my final designs for now. I plan to get some more feedback tomorrow in class, tighten them up, then send them off to print so I can pick them up on Tuesday and be ready for hand in.

Poster Development

Poster 2 Illustration Updates

I've been making small tweaks to this illustration as I've worked, mostly fixing up tone/values and contrast to stop certain elements getting lost, while still keeping the colour scheme mostly unchanged. I also changed the texture shapes on the mountains to make them more in line with the style of the rest of the image.

Before (left) and after (right):

Poster 1 Illustration Update

Based on Caroline's advice, I repainted the colours on this illustration to be more vibrant and also added more texture to make it feel happier and more modern.

Artist Inspiration - Fraser Williamson

Fraser Williamson is a well known New Zealand illustrator whose work has been featured in school journals, tv ads, and other mediums. I like the use of colour and texture in his work.

Week 5 Thursday Crit

We're moving towards the hand in date, so I got confirmation that these two are similar/different enough to be handed in as a set. I still need to do some development, and the tutors suggested:

• Making colours bolder on poster 1
• Related; look into some contemporary NZ illustrators; Tody Morris; Fraser Williamson.
• Play with the contrast on the 2nd poster.

Aside fom that, I also want to look into different borders for the second poster, and make the type a more readable colour.

Poster 2 New Illustrations

 

My first sketch based off this poster (left).

A second sketch, which a chose to work with as the style I'm going with works best with natural shapes rather than cityscapes.

 

Tones, changed early on but still useful for blocking out colour areas.

Colour set 1; I was just trying to come up with colour combinations at this stage. I was trying for a triadic colour scheme, but it really wasn't working.

 

Colour set 2; based off this poster (bottom right). This is definitely working better, but the balance of warm and cool is all weird.

Colour set 3; this is the most natural set, also based off a poster (top right). It also gives a serene feeling to the nature which can be contrasted easily with darker, muddier tones for the foreground.

I added some textures to give it an old poster-y look, and played with the saturation and contrast in Photoshop. I'll keep playing with these filters, but for now I'm happy with the colours.

Poster 1 New Assets

Caroline commented that the sleeping person didn't look enough like a person, so I've redrawn them to be more recognizable. (Also now separate from the road so I can more easily play with composition.

Week 5 Monday - Second Interim

We had our second interim critique this Monday. We got more feedback on our posters from the tutors and peers.

It became apparent that many of us were still unclear on how similar our two posters needed to be. I'd assumed my posters were similar enough, but I got no feedback on my second poster and was advised to develop the first more, so I'm back to thumbnailing a second poster design based on the first.

Critique for poster 1:

• Make the sleeping person more recognizable as a person.
• Having the homeless person barely noticeable is good thematically, but they should be more apparent in terms of design so people don't miss them completely.
• More contrast; highlighting the figure.

Poster 1 Layout Dev

Poster 2 Layout Progress

I've finish my illustration to a point where I wanted to move on to layout and adding text. I don't think I'm completely happy with the colours and there's lots of little things I could always tweak, but I can easily substitute the updated illustration into InDesign at a later time.

I like having the borders; I think it brings across the look of old posters more. My main issue is balancing the subheading and copy text.

This is the design I've chosen to go with for interim. This will be the first time I've gotten critique for this design so I'm going to leave further fiddling until after.

Existing Poster Colour Analysis

Poster2 Development

Sketch:

Rough Tones

These tones went completely out the window immediately because I forgot that the James Smith building is in pastel, and only really looks good and recognizable in pastel.

Poster 2 - Pose Refs

Text

Text

Poster 1 Compositions

Developing my first poster in InDesign.

The first one was rather plain, as the background lacked texture and depth. The texturing could also add some depth to the poster, though it creates an issue with the text, which is adding on top and thus not textured.

Poster Palettes

I used the mosaic tool in Photoshop to get some palettes from my illustrations to work with the text.

Poster Illustration

I've finished (for now) the main illustrations for my first poster; the first is the tourism ad and the second is the homeless person sleeping below it. Making these separately, I have more freedom adjusting the size and positioning when I get into InDesign.
These will probably go through a few more edits and partial redraws before hand in.

I decided to ditch the old poster style for this concept and use it for my second poster. I feel like for this one it would be better to parody the modern "100% Pure" ads, as they are more relevant to the modern image.
From here, I need to arrange them and add the headline and copy.

Week 4 Monday - Style vs Concept

We had a lecture on different ways you can present one concept through various styles. It was also cleared up that our posters need to be the same concept, not just the same topic, realized in two different styles. My cross stitch idea isn't close enough, so I need to look into doing more designs based off the one I am currently developing.

Our posters also need to have a 1) headline 2) tagline and 3) call to action. Caroline suggested keeping the headine the same across both designs to keep them connected.

I've started drawing up more thumbs based on the "Experience the Great Outdoors" headline.

Poster WIP

Starting working on the environmental poster within the poster. Messing around with colours and such.

Poster 2 Ideating

Since my other poster has gotten into the development and refining stage now, I've begun to look at what to do for my second poster.

The concept I've chosen was one I didn't use for interim. It's based off a typical kitschy "Home Sweet Home" cross stitch, but combined with images of homelessness.

Similar to my other poster, I need to keep in mind the New Zealand context and make sure it's obvious through my words and/or imagery. For the medium, I'm looking into doing proper cross stitch to get the full effect. This would also open up the possibility of staining or ripping the fabric and adding an even deeper texture to the image.

Poster 1 Progress

I've started drawing up my illustration digitally so I can develop more while also working towards finishing my final.

I took a bunch of photos to find the right pose for my "Experience" poster, though for the real image I'm going to make the model look much more typically "ideal" for advertising (nicer clothes, skinnier, well done hair)