Formats: Posters Dominique Marshall
Project Brief
Starting Questions
For our final major project, we have been given the creative freedom to choose one of these basic graphic communication formats:
WHICH FORMAT REALLY EXCITES YOU? HOW CAN YOU BE INNOVATIVE WITH THIS FORMAT? WHAT PROCESSES AND TECHNIQUES CAN YOU EXPLORE AND INVESTIGATE? WHO HAS DONE INTERESTING WORK WITH THE FORMAT BEFORE? HOW CAN YOU ENGAGE AND EXCITE THE PEOPLE WHO WILL BE VIEWING THIS WORK?
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Posters/ Folding Broadsheets Books Websites/ Screen Based Design Maps Font Printed Matter (stationery, leaflets, bank notes etc) Magazines
PROJECT RATIONALE: To produce a piece of graphic design and supporting research document that shows off the potential of the chosen format and our creativity and skills as a designer. PROJECT MESSAGE: How creative and innovative we can be with the chosen format, how the format can be used and applied in new ways and showing and using the most ambitious and appropriate range of skills and processes to achieve this. CONTENT: It must be something about the format itself, for example historical facts or technical information. It should be interesting to the target audience and be based on the research and enquiry into our chosen format. CLIENT: Me! This is my opportunity to learn more about my chosen format and create something that I have always wanted to do. TARGET AUDIENCE: The design industry and people coming to view the exhibition.
Looking at the list of formats I’m mainly considering picking posters or possibly websites, seeing as these are the formats I work mostly with. However with regards to this brief, I think I’m mostly drawn to researching and produce a poster, and seeing how I could potentially push the restrictions of this format in order to create something innovative and original. I would love to concentrate on websites, but I’m no major expert at creating them (yet) and have a lot to learn about it before I would really consider trying to pushits boundaries. Thinking about innovation with poster design, it links with what processes and techniques I could explore and investigate. The first things that come to mind are the different types of printing processes i.e. Screen printing, offset lithography, letterpress, embossing etc, all of which I haven’t tried before, so this could be my opportunity to see what I can do once I have learned the basics. All the usual elements of poster design e.g. typography, layout, image, need to also be taken into consideration, and these are all things that I will need to research into.
“A good poster is an aggressive image that must bite the eyes of the viewer and open his thinking.” Philippe Apeloig
“Posters are still extremely important in our culture. Contrary to all predictions, the form has not lost meaning or disappeared in competition with electronic media. It has kept its place and even become more important on a global scale.” Uwe Loesch
“For over two hundred years, posters have been displayed in public places all over the world. Visually striking, they have been designed to attract the attention of passers-by, making us aware of a political viewpoint, enticing us to attend specific events, or encouraging us to purchase a particular product or service.” French historian Max Gallo
“I love the overall poster format, such a classic form of advertising and a way of getting someone’s attention or sharing your political views. Posters can play an important role in our culture and have incredible potential to get reactions from people and cause people to think one way or another.” Jason Munn
“A poster’s impact is undisputed. One simply cannot avoid looking at a poster, once one has seen it.” Uwe Loesch
Secondary Research With digital media being a very popular trend currently within the design world, innovation with traditional poster design is usually seen as falling in line with how computer software can be used to create something original and unique. The examples here show how the potential for traditional posters has changed drastically over recent years, as designers experiment with different digital programs, tools, and functions. With the four posters here, each one is based on implementing a 3D design into a traditionally flat space, which in turn brings the piece to life. All but one are typography based, with the designers manipulating them in exciting ways that draw the attention of audiences worldwide. Despite these examples being very innovative in their designs, computer manipulated posters have become something quite generic, and it is hard to create something entirely new that has not been thought of yet.
In comparison to the previous posters these examples bring the 3D element to a literal level. The first example, ‘I Hate 2D Posters’, mixes both dimensions together by cutting the letters out of the top layer and lifting them up. The second example, The Paper Gameboy, is not a typical poster as such as it is not conveying a message of anything kind. Instead it has been created as a display piece, one that audiences can relate directly to - that is if they have ever played the game Tetris. The Nike Run poster, which is made completely out of wood, is an example of how 3D typography does not have to be created using a 3D rendering program - which is something many designers currently use - but instead it can be created by using a basic material and manipulating it in many different ways in order to create something never seen before. The last image is an example of Ambient Advertising, which instead of being placed on a billboard, it is placed in the environment for which it is advertising. This type of advertising is one that interacts with the environment, and is very visually interesting to look at. Many companies have begun using this form of advertising in order to draw attention to their products, and it is definitely a successful method to use.
Ideas Generation Applying the basic ideas generation process to the poster format in order to think of ideas that are ‘outside the box’, innovative and unique. This is an important thing to do with this project, as we have to create something that has the ‘wow’ factor, not just another piece of generic graphic design.
3 Initial Ideas After completing the ideas generation process, I came up with these 3 initial ideas for my poster:
1. Stop Motion Poster • • • • •
Projected onto a blank piece of paper Typography based Either 3D or 2D lettering, possibly a mixture of both? Animation is looped Would be a really short stop motion i.e 10-20 seconds?
Need to consider: • • • • • • •
Size of blank poster Time length of animation Colours Layout Typography Materials Music/Sound
2. Jigsaw Puzzle Poster • Displayed in scattered pieces • Audience has to interact with it in order to see the actual full poster • Possibly have a flat printed version shown so the audience knows what they have to try and create - eliminates the element of not knowing until it is complete • Could be a series of jigsaw posters instead of just one
Need to consider: • • • • • • • • •
Size Colour Message shown Typography Materials used to create the jigsaw Shape - rectangular, other? Will it be displayed in a box? Series of posters or just one? If series - folding broadsheet included to show the series as flat printed versions together
3. Glow In The Dark Poster • Typographic 3D layout • Part of poster shown in natural light, the rest is inside a box - can only be viewed ‘in the dark’ • Box includes hole(s) so the audience can see the rest of the message conveyed • Possibility: the part of the poster that is inside the box isn’t just stuck to the rest of the paper, but is instead scattered around inside the box - requires the audience to interact with the box and move around in order to see everything
Need to consider: • • • •
Size of box, paper and lettering What the typography says Materials Colours
At the moment I’m leaning towards either the glow in the dark option or the jigsaw puzzle. Both of these enable me to get away from creating posters on a screen, which is typical behaviour, and create something which is different from everything else I have created so far. They give me the chance to create something that will involve audience interaction, rather than just attract people to look at it for a few minutes then walk away. These ideas also enable me to delve into the world of 3D design, which is something I don’t necessarily have a lot of experience in and would like to explore further.
Jigsaw Poster? Started playing around with the idea of making a jigsaw poster. Using paper/card turned out to be quite a bad decision, but it’s all part of it just being a prototype!
Prototype 1 (yellow version): Making the poster so small made it a lot harder for me to cut out the jigsaw pieces, hence only the top line being done! The idea has started off okay though, better than I expected.
Prototype 2 (white version): This time just a bit smaller than A4. Easier to cut out, but equally as hard to keep together long enough without the paper bending or flying away out of place! If I were to definitely continue this as my final outcome, I will need to do some more research into the different types of material I could use and the size, as well as the typography used on the actual poster and if I want to include any imagery.
Trapped In Suburbia Linking to my idea of creating a series of jigsaw puzzle posters, this work by Trapped In Suburbia shows how a collection of the same thing can create something entirely new and visually appealing. All of the books used in this structure have been cut in the same places. Relating this to my jigsaw idea, I could think about creating a series of jigsaws and finding a way to connect them into one piece, taking into consideration how the different posters are shown to the audience and how they need to interact with the piece in order to view all the content.
General Questions Where are posters now and where did they used to be? - Propaganda posters created before and during World War I & II had a massive impact on their audiences, convincing people to join the army, work in factories, fight against the enemy etc. Public spaces during the Nazi rule were bombarded with posters of Hitler and his followers...you could say that they became a part of life for the citizens in Germany as they would encounter images of their leader day in, day out and were not allowed to speak out against them. The same can be said about when Stalin was in power in Russia. For other purposes they were also used to advertise products and companies, which is what one of their main purposes is nowadays. However unlike back in the 1930s, 40s etc, I don’t think the poster is seen as an effective method of communication anymore. Instead I think most people view it as just a piece of paper with a bit of information on it, one that doesn’t really make a difference to their everyday life, it’s just something pretty to look at. Obviously there are many exceptions to this claim, like Shepard Fairey’s Obama poster and the billboards currently being used to promote the parties in the UK General Election. With the poster format being used in a number of ways in modern times, it is quite difficult to really state where posters are now, but comparing their impact on audiences now to their impact on audiences some 50 to 100 years ago the poster is definitely a dying art, with many people questioning if it actually has any potential within a world of growing technology and computer based design.
Is the traditional poster dead? - new trends such as guerilla advertising seem to be paving the way for communicating messages, with traditional poster designs beginning to fall flat in the effectiveness ranks. These are two questions that have been playing on mind when thinking about my project. They kinda feed into why I’ve decided to create an interactive poster, rather than just a typical traditional one. I guess my idea will show one of the many ways that the poster still has potential in being an effective mode of design, rather than a dying one that people don’t care about anymore.
Definitions
Before I go any further with this project, I thought it would be a really good idea to make sure that I have an idea of the definition of a poster and a jigsaw before I combine the two for my final piece: • A poster is a piece of printed paper designed to attract attention and convey a message through the use of typography, illustration or a mixture of the two. It is typically rectangular in shape, and made to be attached to a wall or vertical surface. • A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires a person to assemble a collection of interlocking shapes in order to create a piece of full picture. They are usually made out of a rectangular piece of wood or cardboard, but the shape of the puzzle can differ depending on the subject matter.
Poster Survey Thinking about the original format, I decided to create a short survey to find out peoples views on poster design and its future. 3. Do you think posters are more fun if you can interact with them? Why? 1. Do you think posters are still effective in communicating messages within today’s society?
4. What attracts you to really pay attention to a poster? 2. Are traditional posters dead? Why?
Reworking of Jigsaw Idea
Distorting The Text
Thinking more about my jigsaw poster idea and whether it would be workable or not, I decided to go down a different path and think about using velcro instead. This idea mostly came about after seeing this CocaCola bus stop advertisement that is made solely out of velcro.
After discussing my idea in a tutorial and gaining some feedback about it, some of the suggestions that came up were:
I found this type of advertising campaign to be really good at being innovative and original, as people were engaging with it without realizing it (until they pulled away from the poster). A negative aspect about it though is that velcro can be quite destructive depending on the type of surface that it comes into contact with. I’m guessing people with really thin clothes or accessories were not too happy with these posters if their clothing got torn or ripped, I know I definitely wouldn’t be!!
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to keep it simple be in your face/provocative give the viewer options to create their own message ask questions
The idea of using Spoonerisms, Anagrams, Ambigrams and Palindromes also came up. These are all really playful ways of working with typography (which seems to be the thing I’m having the most trouble deciding on!) At the moment I’ve been playing around with anagram generators online to see what comes up when I type in things like “posters”, “posters are cool”, “poster design”, and “posters are dead”. Think it is safe to say that I definitely wasn’t expecting about 13000+ hits for some of those phrases! A few of my favourites so far have been: • posters - to press, re post, re spot • poster design - resigned spot, designer post, redoing steps, design presto, tired sponges, doing presets, grids openest • posters are cool - procreates solo, operates colors, erases protocol, a corpse retools, career solo post • posters are dead - paraded stereos, desperadoes art, desperadoes tear With regards to how I could lay these out on my final poster, I’ve been thinking of having each letter on a separate tile so that the arrangement can change to make new sentences. This is kind of where me wanting to use velcro comes in... I’m not too sure if I really want to use actual jigsaw puzzle shapes to make the poster, I may just keep it really simple and use squares, triangles, or circles instead as the letters need to be able to fit neatly next to each other, and also I need to make sure that once rearranged, the letters still fit next to each other without any overlaps of the material. The velcro will be used to make sure that the letters stay in contact with the poster, which I’m thinking I’ll actually put up on the wall (traditional method).
Typographic Brainwave After revisiting a few websites that I started looking at when I was first coming up with ideas for this project, I rediscovered the work of NaxArt. One of their design posters has just given me a brainwave regarding my final piece. I’ve been trying to think about the layout of the typography on my poster, and whether I want to use just one word or a sentence. Seeing this poster has given me the idea to keep it to one word, but think about including a sentence or something somewhere on the poster. The letters could fill the page, but sticking with the anagram idea, they can have velcro attached to the back so that the letters can be moved around on the poster.
Velcro Prototypes Prototype 1: I didn’t really create a specific grid system when making this one, so it didn’t really work out too well. Also I realized quite quickly that if I wanted to change the letters around in order to create a long word, then more space was definitely needed, and again, it didn’t pan out too well. I found that using velcro was a good idea though, as it really does enable you to change the text really easily if you wish to. Prototype 2: This prototype came out a lot better than the first. Keeping it very simple for now, i kept to a six square grid, using the obvious word “POSTER” as the main content. I tried including the definition of a poster that I wrote awhile ago, as well as one of my favourite quotes that I’ve read so far. Not too sure about keeping these in the final thing though, all part of the ‘work in progress’. Velcro wise, I found that it will work a lot better if I use full square patches of it instead of rows or dots. Have to see if I can print the lettering directly on to the foam, as printing on to normal paper then sticking it on to the foam really does fail and definitely doesn’t look great after awhile.
Prototype 3: Six square idea using a different typeface (Cow Cow)...cut into 24 smaller squares. I accidentally made the mistake of mixing the pieces up when cutting them, so definitely have first hand experience regarding putting this back together like a jigsaw puzzle! Fun but very frustrating!
Major Development After another tutorial, my final idea has taken a mighty step forward. Instead of using Velcro to attach the letters to whatever material I’m using, it is possible for me to use magnetic paper as the back of my poster and attach the letters using magnets. This is a more practical means of moving the letters around, as Velcro can become quite troublesome and does require a bit of effort to play with. I was also told that there is a new laser-cut machine available in the 3D department, and that I will be able to cut the letters out of any material perfectly. I also got the idea to think about making the letters out of different materials instead of just one material to add variety to the final piece (maybe ones that can refer to different materials that can make a poster?) Another idea given was to consider using images or symbols either as well as typography or instead of typography. I’m not entirely sure what imagery I could use if I were to go down this route, maybe just punctuation? Or maybe symbols that refer to the process of making a poster? Will need to look into that a bit more if I go with it.
Prototype: Laser-cut Lettering
Halfway Assessment
So I got the chance to use the new laser-cut machine in the 3D department. I made two versions of my poster, one out of plywood and one out of clear plastic (both A3). Both came out really well, and I’m definitely glad I got the chance to use the laser-cut machine!
After showing my prototype during the halfway assessment point, I found that people who Did interact with my poster only interacted with the wooden letters, not the plastic ones. This might have been different if I actually had all the necessary materials i.e. magnets, as I had to make do with using blue tack instead. Overall, I got pretty good feedback, and people thought it was a really good idea which was definitely pleasing to hear.
Magnetic sheet; wooden and plastic letters placed on sheet; wooden letters with magnetic paper attached to the back
Magnetic Sheet Arrival My magnetic sheets arrived in due course and I was really happy with what I received. They are self adhesive, so it was very easy for me to apply the paper to some of my wooden letters. For the backing, I attached one of the sheets to a piece of foam board, as that was the thickest thing I could get my hands on at the time. After placing both the wooden letters and the plastic letters on the magnetic sheet, I have come to the conclusion that it will be better for my final piece if I stick to using just the wooden letters. They are easier to see, are easier to pick up and move around, and they also look better in my opinion.
Final Developments One last tutorial before the final week of production helped me to completely finalize my poster: • Use steel sheet metal as the backing to my poster instead of a magnetic sheet as it looks ‘sexy’ • Stick with the phrase ‘Interaction Is All The Rage’ instead of making the poster too wordy • Have the main type written in big letters; include loads of little letters (in a bowl maybe) during the exhibition • Consider making the poster a typography teaching tool i.e. screen print a baseline grid onto the sheet metal • Have a collection of photographs showing different possibilities of where the type could go, • Think about making it A2 size instead of A3 • Do not mount anything on foam board...foam board is banned! • Paper backgrounds can be attached in between the magnetic letters and the magnetic backing, so do a bit of research into what colours are commonly used for backgrounds on posters • Also research common typefaces used
Typefaces and Colour Backgrounds
I found an article on Just Creative Design that gave a quick overview about the top 7 fonts used by professional designers. These were: Helvetica, Garamond, Frutiger, Futura, Bickham Script Pro, Trajan and Bodoni.
For popular backgrounds used on posters, I decided to find one article on Inspirational Poster Design and tally which colours are used the most often. The results were:
The typefaces laid out on Illustrator ready for importing into the lasercut program; the coloured paper
To get a fairer range it would have been better to do more than article, but from this I found that some designers prefer to use lighter colours for their backgrounds, except for black and dark grey. I guess this is because it makes the content easier to read/ look at, as the background should not be more dominant than the content.
For my final poster, I chose to use Franchise as the main lettering, and for the smaller letters I decided to use Helvetica, Franchise, Gill Sans and Futura. I found all of these to put very classic typefaces that work well for display purposes. For the background colours, I picked the most popular ones from my tally chart. However I was not too keen on having black, so chose the next most popular which was yellow. This in turn means that I have three neutral colours and three bright colours. As my sheet metal took longer than expected to arrive, I didn’t have the chance to screen print a grid onto it., so instead I printed a grid on the coloured paper. There is two sheets of each colour, one with a grid, one without. This will give the audience the chance to choose whether they want to show a grid behind the letters or not.
Prepare The Laserbeam! I went back to the 3D department to get my final poster cut out of plywood. I managed to capture the machine in action whilst it was cutting out the Gill Sans typeface (which had to be redone as not all the letters were cut out properly the first time round.
I’m really happy with how it all came out, although I do think i would have preferred it if the main lettering (bottom left) was a bigger size.
The different typefaces used The lasercut machine; the negatives of the plywood
Final Poster - Interaction Is All The Rage The sheet metal arrived A2 in size. It was definitely a better choice than the magnetic sheet! Overall I’m really happy with what I have produced for this project, and am really glad that my original idea (jigsaw poster) has evolved into something more workable and more fun.
Final Poster layout - all typefaces on the sheet metal; examples of what the audience can create with instructions
Sheet metal; everything packed together; example of how the letters are magnetized
Creating an interactive poster using wood type, magnets and a metal sheet has definitely been one of my most creative ideas to date. If I were to work on this more, I would consider creating more lettering in the smaller size, possibly the whole alphabet using the typefaces I chose. I would also consider doing the first idea of screen printing the baseline grid onto the sheet metal rather than the coloured paper, although I do think it was a wise choice to do it on the paper as it means the audience have choice of whether they would want to include a grid or not.