POETS ALOUD FALL 2024
SOLO PROJECT
INDESIGN, ILLUSTRATOR, PHOTOSHOP
Poster for Poets Aloud, a series of live readings featuring nationally recognized poets. Exercise in creating clear informational flow, developing a balanced layout, and illustrating a unique visual inspired by the event.
Project Overview
This project, which kicked off my sophomore year, was an exploration of the fundamentals of poster design, including typographic hierarchy, image composition, and grid systems. After creating a diverse collection of layout and imagery iterations, I settled on a Saul Bass-esque figure, drawn in Illustrator and texturized in Photoshop. Text was arranged with InDesign.While attending the event, I had the privilege of hearing some truly incredible poetry. Much of it dealt with heavy themes, yet was delivered by the speakers in a cool and relaxed manner. I wanted to reflect this through my illustration: a jazzy, aloof figure hunches with microphone in hand, ready to deliver some gut-punching prose.
Click here for detailed process documentation on Medium.
Initial Layout Studies
In class, we were initially tasked with compiling layouts using only our poster information. Image and color would be integrated later. I focused on designing dynamic compositions, using type with contrasting sizes and weights to create informational hierarchy. As my poster advertises poetry readings, I took inspiration from repetition of prose often seen in poem structure, repeating the event title and letting it bleed off the page.
Early Experiments
After leaving the informational layout stage, our next task was to bring image and color into our work. In each of my drafts, I explored different poetry-inspired ideas: my first draft features a zoomed-in image of a typewriter, my second uses an image of ornamental curch steeples to represent the prestigious, sophisticated history of poetry, and my third features a figure holding a microphone. Since a major goal of this stage was to create playful interaction between image and type, I allowed one to occasionally obscure
the other.
Casting such a wide net created challenges later in my process: bringing three different ideas to life meant a lack of cohesion between drafts. It may have been more helpful to devote multiple drafts to the same idea, executed in different ways. My first and second drafts presented pressing issues: the zoomed-in typewriter is not recognizable, and church imagery has obvious religious connotations. I chose to pursue my figure drawing, as it had the potential to bring the complex, human nature of poetry to light.
Figure Sketching
I took my figure back to the drawing board. In my initial draft, he was a twisted pretzel of knees and elbows. He took up far too much space in my composition, leaving information to be squeezed in wherever it could fit. I set about redesigning his pose, opting for more of a cool, relaxed lean than a contorted hunch.
Refining Poster
After I’d redrawn my figure, I found myself dissatisfied with the compositions I was able to create, so I began experimenting with cropping the illustration. I settled on keeping the upper body -- which was more refined than the legs -- in view.