Category: Project 2: Research and Development

Project 2: Research and Development II

October 23, 2017 / / 0 Comments

I started off this project with a few moodboards based on a few different themes. I wanted to deviate from the common portrayal of arts in posters, with an element of storytelling.

Moodboard 1: art and music

Moodboard 2: enjoyment

Moodboard 3: fairytale

Thereafter, I came up with drafts of all 3 ideas based on the mindmap i created

Enjoyment
Arts and music

Fairytale
The first draft was too immature, and the visual narrative was quite misleading; is Jack climbing the beanstalk to visit the hospital? Or is he painting a heaven? With these questions in mind, I then decided to create a cleaner composition.

I decided on the fairytale as a theme for my poster. Using Jack and the Beanstalk as a reference point, I used illustration to portray the idea of “creating your own adventure”, with the patient or volunteer identifying with the character Jack painting a mural that comes alive, filled with passion and immersing himself into the environment of the hospital.

 

This is the composition before I added in colour. I felt that there was a flow to the image, with the overlapping forms and the visual narrative. The font I initially chose was Bebas Neue, but I eventually realised it was too geometric for a fun composition.

 

This was draft 1 of the poster. (the colour is a bit off after uploading jpeg to OSS) The feedback I got was that the background was a bit too dull. I decided to explore more exciting colours for the background. I decided to stick to the current narrative as I liked the idea of the squirrel having been painted by Jack, decides to give back in love. In terms of the composition, the type also does not meld well with the art, which was something to consider. The type was too big and rather distracting. Again, the serif fonts felt too formal for the informal design.

Project 2: Research and Development I

September 25, 2017 / / 0 Comments

I started off doing some research into vintage ads because I liked the simplistic style and technicolor aesthetics, and hoped to find some inspiration. I found an illustration magazine and among its pages were the following posters.

I liked the muted color palette and the simple, clean forms of the artwork. It was direct and sent a clear message.

I like this poster the most because of its composition, art direction and message.

The poster’s message is simple: wear and share your Nike Airmax sneakers. Being a sneakerhead, I like the way Nike has implied a community. Indeed, the brand builds communities around sports. The poster does exactly that.

By using a limited color palette with teal, red, white and black, it is able to create an immediate visual impact with space-themed aesthetics. With balls in orbit, one can easily interpret them as footballs, tennis balls etc. It has enough ambiguity to be playful. The shoe is smack in the centre, like the sun, pulling everything into its orbit.

This is the essence of the poster – Airmax is the centre of the universe. And the emotion it elicits is that of awe and amusement; that something worn on the feet can be celebrated in such a way.

The big bold custom typeface enhances legibility the poster. Together with vector illustration, flat bold colours and good contrast, it generates visual interest with the space-themed illustration first before giving clarity in the big bold type.

Overall, I feel that the playful approach makes this a very effective ad as it conveys the energy of the brand (Just Do It) as well as the call to action (AIRMAX DAY). The execution was bold and forthcoming, combining a limited palette with a bold illustration style and even bolder typography.