For this Type-Only poster, we could choose from a limited amount of colors, a predetermined set of information, and any fonts or typefaces that we felt fit the style of the poster.
Scroll for Creative Process
For this project, my designs went through several iterations from the start with just the choice of color scheme. I've always been one to flesh out a design first and then choose colors that fit the design as I started to do here... Needless to say, it didn't feel very cohesive and I felt that color should play a more prominent role in my design process, so I flipped the script and put color first.
ST. Patrick's Color Scheme?
Potential Colors
Dark Earth Tones?
Brighter Earth Tones?
Final Color Scheme
I knew I wanted colors that were earthy tones and high contrast. This is because I wanted my secondary and tertiary colors to jump off the page and be completely eye-catching. At first, my mind was shrouded in green tones probably because if the upcoming St. Patrick's Day holiday as well as the variances that I explored in the color green for this project. Ultimately, I decided that the greens weren't giving me the contrast that I needed.
So, I ultimately ended up going with yellow earth tones mainly because nothing jumps out at you more than the color yellow. I think the posters that I drew inspiration from had influence in that. In these posters, the yellow acts as the highlight to draw the viewer's eye across the poster, and with this in mind, I introduced movement to my poster in the same way.
Rough Draft: Choosing Fonts
The second big design choice for this project was choosing what would best visually exemplify my message. I new immediately I wanted to use this font called Ancient for the word 'culture'. It the script brush-style font evokes a sense artistry and adaptability that I think of when I imagine what culture is to me.
For the word 'NOW', I knew I wanted a high impact display san serif font to really up the contrast and be the perfect backdrop for culture. Singo Regular is the perfect font for this because it reminds me of the best parts of the overused font, Impact, without being too weighty in its design.
The word Design, however, is where I struggled. I tried several of my favorite go-to, out-of-the-box fonts. All of these fonts bring texture and movement to any project which is what I was hoping for, but ultimately, I didn't want Design & Culture competing for the viewer's attention. Design displays culture through visual methods, and so I decided to stick with Singo Regular because design is a conduit of culture.
Danken (B&W)
Danken (W)
Enigma
Bricklane
Lastly, I worked on the layout of the poster and marrying all of my choices together. To the left are some of my initial layout sketches which I'm shocked to say came more quickly than usual probably because I had some ideas percolating from my color and font choices. It was tricky to figure out how the colors would best fit together.
However, in the end, I am so happy with how I was able to implement the colors, and how I was able to use the line segment tool to add the textured brush strokes as a backdrop. I was so pleased that the textured effect matched so closely with the brushed effect that the Ancient font displays. It was really awesome to be able to carry that motif throughout the poster design. I worked hard on this design, and I hope that shows in this design process.
Thank you for reading.