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COURSE HOME
ADVANCED TYPE & LAYOUT
PROJECT SUMMARY - Poster
ART 2230 Advanced Type & Layout - Kerry Gonzales
ASSIGNMENT OUTLINE AND SUMMARY
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Posters or smaller versions called hand bills have been around since the mechanical printing press was improved and introduced to Europe by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-1400s. Well-designed posters have been collected as art pieces ever since.
Posters were used as small signs along roadways. When cars became faster and the small road signs were hard to see, signs were enlarged into billboards. Billboards were first created with multiple "poster" pieces, before technology allowed for one big image to be used.
The idea of posters as art developed almost immediately. Much like the "Moulin Rouge" posters by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. His posters advertising the Moulin Rouge are now considered art pieces. Thousands if not millions of copies adorn living rooms all over the world. Advertising is art.
Most posters tend to be more image driven than those with an emphasis on typography. The Poster Project will show that images aren't always necessary. And when you don't have any images to use... you always have type! This poster design will be all type with no images.
Poster Theme :
Banned Book Week 2021
September 26 – October 2
Poster Color :
"Solid" aka "Flat" Pantone Spot colors
HAND COMP
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Unlike some of the other assignments where were have had images to work though doing the sketches and drawing out, the challenge for this was our need to illustrate the type in our hand work, which often can be tedious and time consuming.
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This was the most difficult aspect of this assignment, that and figuring out what said type would be.
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I felt challenged in what I would say or write on my poster, what the body would be, headlines and such. I also wanted to keep it simpler, not because of the work, but because I felt the look could become busy and loose meaning. Some of my favorite posters have be ones of simpler design conveying their message though a few simple but powerful images or text pieces, composed though strong layout and design.
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This was my intent; however, I had to change this and try to meet some of the different constraints that were placed on the assignment. This is always a good thing because we have what we want to do or know what we can do well, and yet its in these less comfortable areas that we grow the most as artists.
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I could have perhaps created a stronger design. But for what was required and what was needed here, I do feel it was successful in the end.
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Another funny challenge for me was when I left all my sketched at my family’s cabin and had to recreate all of my sketches for the credit. This was good though because I worked out a few extra ideas that I had, and then also altered some. I shall have to get these and upload them at a later time, I could be interesting to see those side by side.
COMPUTER COMP
This was the easiest part, but it usually is, because of my hand work, there is often a easy conversion to computer. Or at least there is a easy conversion to computer for me. I have often wondered if this would be as easy for another artists, to look at the sketches and convert them to the computer. Or if its just me and my work. I know that some of my work is my simple in design so it probably isn’t too crazy or hard. But you never know.
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I think my favorite was the headlines of banned books initial comp, I didn’t do this one in the final hand because it would have been a lot of work but also it didn’t meet the assignment criteria. I just did it because I wanted to see it on the computer. And building the type collage was kind of fun, I spent more time on it than I should have, but putting our type knowledge to work was cool. in that I really got to see how the tracking, leading, kerning and much much more all worked together in order to create readability. It was a great exercise.
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I loved getting to the color. There was one design that I felt was really strong and then realized that I wouldn’t work with the colors because there was a mystery 6th color that didn’t / couldn’t belong, and then no matter how I tweaked it, it didn’t work. So I went with my second favorite, again because it met the criteria and was correct. I feel this could happen in the industry, being that you love the way it works, but knowing it couldn’t work and adaptation would be required.
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It really come together well. I liked it more than I thought I would. I wish I would have done a few things differently, but in reality, there was only so much to be done here with out getting too busy. I might take some of my sketches to computer to see how they could turn out though. Its sometimes sad when we do the hand work for things that will never be… but they done have to be that way I feel.
POSTER PROJECT
PROCESS AND FINAL OUTCOME
Total Completion Time: 32.06 hrs
Design Process Step Summary
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As an English minor, I can always appreciate the gravity and meaning of a good brainstorm, I do them more often than not. I at first for some time felt it was silly for design work, but overtime I have learned their essential part in how a design comes together thought its content.
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Much like the stories we write as writer or other works of fact and fiction, a good brainstorm is the foundation to a successful story. This brainstorm I had some fun with, because I don’t believe in banning books and feel it’s a very fascist and small minded move for such a “free” nation.
Which is the beginning of my design, I really wanted to do more graphic appearance but felt that even my mouse was pushing it.
I would have loved to do a few books with chains and barbed wire. Or something to the effect of burning books. Or a finger held up saying “hush, they don’t exist:” all in type of course. So many ideas.
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COMPLETION TIME SUMMARY - 1.2 hrs
Design Process Step Summary
I could only remember a few of my ideas when I got home and realized i left my sketches and other comps at the cabin. So in some ways there is a rehash of those ideas, knew ones, or even reworks of ideas that i had and then got to further develop. that in itself is kind of cool, which is all off of a costly time consuming mistake.
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In the industry this sort of thing could be damaging I'm sure, and in some cases it might have justified me driving right back up there. However, i am a student and employee who is shackled by time and demands. Which may not be as bad in the further, but then again there will always be something that has us held with demands and time constraints.
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COMPLETION TIME SUMMARY - 4.22 hrs ( ran long due to cabin abandonment mistake )
Design Process Step Summary
my ideas really started to come together, luckily I remembered the ideas that I moved forward with at the cabin, and then recreated them rather easily. At this point i knew which ones I was leaning to, they weren't anything fancy or out there, but they had a direct, sharp, and simple appeal. Which works.
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COMPLETION TIME SUMMARY - 5.67 hrs ( ran long due to cabin abandonment mistake ) hrs
Design Process Step Summary
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I definitely knew which one I was going to do, I liked the mouse and it was a book that I remember having to get a permission slip to read this in high school, and it wasn’t a bad book, it was a very real and serious story. My great grandma grew up during the great depression and told me stories about it, so in a way I had some personalization that I could see some of the reality to the fiction.
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Then in the end of it all with the tragedy of Lenny’s death by the hand of his dear friend George all in the effort to save him. That was a sort of irony and surrealism to it. It’s hard to explain everything but I always felt it was a good read. So that part of me was drawn to completing the design for that.
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I know the other one was good under the right circumstance and perhaps there were better designs I could have done looking back. But I felt pretty satisfied with the direction at this point.
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COMPLETION TIME SUMMARY - 3.75 hrs ( ran long due to cabin abandonment mistake )
Design Process Step Summary
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This was the challenge for me as far as the sketches go, I wasn't sure how I was going to illustrate the mouse and the type that made the design work. some of the other aspects were just added / laid out copy and they would be easy to show later on. but being on paper when you know that it will be going the direction of color, how do you illustrate the different colors. I would have used my markers but I am out and funds have been tight this year.
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On previous assignments I was using watercolors to illustrate the tint and shade of the images and artwork. but on this I couldn't do it so easily.
So that in mind, I ended up just showing more block art / layout of the design.
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COMPLETION TIME SUMMARY - 6.17 hrs
Design Process Step Summary
I think my favorite was the headlines of banned books initial comp, I didn’t do this one in the final hand because it would have been a lot of work but also it didn’t meet the assignment criteria. I just did it because I wanted to see it on the computer. And building the type collage was kind of fun, I spent more time on it than I should have, but putting our type knowledge to work was cool. in that I really got to see how the tracking, leading, kerning and much much more all worked together in order to create readability. It was a great exercise.
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The one I ended up doing was the one on the Right; 'of mice and men'. which it was a strong design being that it looked like a book cover and being simple it pulled in people to see what it was all about. I had to make some adjustments going forward and the one mouse with knocked out characters was too close to a graphic so all future designs had this eliminated.
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COMPLETION TIME SUMMARY - 3.87 hrs
Design Process Step Summary
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There were some definite adjustments that were needed and some added body text that I left out. I think it just looks like a standard poster, I would have loved to have done something more fun, but again this looks professional and go me for doing that.
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During this process its always a lot of back and forth. I always forget to save with all the changes that I make on computer without printing it out, so as I sit there, I am making changes and fixing things and forgetting to save for a less destructive work habit.
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It works out in the end. And I do capture a few to be shown here and track progress and change. But still it is something that I have struggled with throughout the process.
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COMPLETION TIME SUMMARY - 3.07 hrs
Design Process Step Summary
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Pretty spectacular… a finished B&W.
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Actually, in all seriousness this is when the gravity of the reality of your work hits. You see the successes and failures all at once. Seeing how the design comes together with the contrast and harmony of the black and white. This wasn’t necessarily part of the design requirements but I felt I would show the clean and comp before going to the different color studies and their final design.
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COMPLETION TIME SUMMARY - .45 hrs
Design Process Step Summary
I don’t know what it is about color, but I always get kind of intimidated by it. Until I actually get to doing it and working with it on any given design. Something about it just throws me off. And I’m not sure why because my designs in color aren’t bad.
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Though as I say this, if you look at some of the color studies that I did, there are some that work well, and then total flops… or at least I see them as that. Could be my artistic bias towards certain colors, but then again it could just be those colors in the way they are laid out.
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This definitely helps me every time. I like shifting the colors and seeing what works and doesn’t even if I am apprehensive or intimidated to work with color at first.
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COMPLETION TIME SUMMARY - 2.61 hrs
Design Process Step Summary
This is always one of the quickest parts in the process, just some minor checks and adjustments, finalizing the artwork as a package and then getting it finalized. Just the finished artwork ready for the press.
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COMPLETION TIME SUMMARY - .32 hrs
Design Process Step Summary
And now the finished work. I didn’t change a whole lot after a certain point, I got the work done, but during the final stages of this project I had health complications with my appendix, winding up in the hospital for a day or two.
But complications aside and life challenges that I experienced with this project. I really fell that it came together and worked better that I could have hoped for, there are other designs that I would like to see on the computer and will most likely proceed with working on them.
This worked out well, I think I would find a way to bolden the letter bands that I have running diagonally and horizontally more, but for texture and appearance they work.
And of course, I always include a Mock Mount, since we aren’t in class and don’t have to do this for presentation. I still like to show it as if it was for the same effect that it has when viewed in class.
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COMPLETION TIME SUMMARY - .73 hrs
