Rosencrantz and Guildenstern - Final Poster

Lesson 1: What the Client wants, the Client gets...

In graphic design, just as it is with any business providing a service this is the golden rule. Regardless of how badly mangled the initial composition may be. In this case the addition of the chalk drawings take away from the flow of the initial piece.

Inspired by the font used in the title, those who chose said font thought to incorporate a more humorous feel to the design. Granted adding this aspect might have been a good idea, in hindsight it totally deviates from the initial feel of the poster - that of dread and mystery (in my opinion at least).

The placement of the hand is supposed to illustrate a falling coin from the hand of its owner. The foot, the second character (whomever is which is left up to interpretation..) being represented by the partially visible foot.

While destroying what I felt as a good sense of flow, the design is far from completely destroyed. In the end the design doesn't look half bad to the untrained eye, but for those in the art community and for this designer especially it represents something else entirely.

....a compromised design

Changes

Wanting to incorporate a David Bowie reference in the headline, suddenly I forgot the words...

Anyways, back to business.

Speaking with Jerre, I believe we have narrowed the initial eight potentials into 2 contenders for the final Rosencrantz and Guildenstern poster. With much luck students and faculty will be seeing one of these all around campus and quite possibly beyond.

Next up some revisions to Christmas Carol and Brigadoon -- mostly in sketch form.

Still haven't started reading Summer and Smoke, but hope to within the next few days.

More to come...

1 Month Later

Entering week 3(?) of the fall semester, things have picked up in terms of workload.

This blog is a continuation of my previous blog. As the semester progresses, updates as to progress and lessons learned will be discussed along the way.

Having met with Jerre Briske, the department head last week, the groundwork for the majority of the semester has largely been set.

Things discussed for each of the posters:

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

-Font to be updated: more contemporary format, less focus on old english.

-Add contact information on bottom of page, play dates under title.

A Christmas Carol

-Font possibly updated: fits with the overall tone and feel of play thus far.

-Add contact information on bottom of page, play dates under title.

-Incorporate more Christmas: incorporate holly into composition

-Lose the candle: design element that hasn't worked thus far, holly might be used as

replacement.

-Background image: new vector based template for a floor design - possibility.

Brigadoon

-Font possibly updated: incorporate kilt patterns into title.

-Revision of design: more Irish, less mystical.

Summer and Smoke

-Font possibly updated: does not feel right with atmosphere of play.

-Background: lose the fence, incorporate a fountain in the shape of an angel crying.

-Color scheme is close to desired atmospheric feel.

More to come..including pictures...

End Of Summer Semester

With the summer semester approaching a blazing ending (weather and time..) I feel very fortunate that I will be continuing this class (to certain degree) in the fall, this will hopefully give me more time to 'tweak' what I've already done. In the time allotted I have been able to accomplish much, but nearly enough of what I would have liked to do. I'm very happy with how 'Rosencrantz' has turned out, as well as 'Christmas Carol.'

For the 'Christmas Carol poster, further revisions are to come as apparently the light from the candle doesn't seem to align with the shadow. Another aspect I would probably change is the font, as it's too similar to the font used for either 'Rosencrantz' or 'Brigadoon.'

For 'Brigadoon' the relative newcomer to the group, I wanted to convey a sense of mystery with this poster. Originally the idea was incorporate a postcard motif and work from there. Having met with Joseph, it was decided that I work from the theme I 'found' myself working in. If one were to analyze all three the central image is in the bottom left hand corner. For most people that means the natural flow would lead upwards and to the right.

Having worked with this idea I decided to depict a 'lover's embrace' if you will splashed against the moonlight. I'm still playing with the moon as I'm not quite pleased with the overall look as of yet. I am however pleased with the could cover around the moon. Originally planning on constructing a cloud in illustrator, I stumbled upon a snazzy set of brushes that made a more realstic form of cloud cover. One idea that could work however is combining the two ideas, incorporating a blend/blur into the illustrator file and then going over with the brush to give it more volume.

But what's that you say there was supposed to be FOUR posters and not three? Why yes there actually is, given time constraints due to some unforeseen circumstances I was only able to come up with a rough idea for 'Summer and Smoke,' having known very little about this story I hope that given it's an incomplete idea, it conveys the story's feel regardless.

Knowing very little about the story I found a general sense of isolation in the lead character's due to their flaws. In looking images this one drew me in the most. Attempting to mirror said theme of islolation I simply changed the color of the post. I also color timed the picture as the original had more of a April/Spring feel and not the summer one that I desired.

In the end this semester has gone by at a blazing pace and I look foward to what happens next. Perhaps Jerry and I could finally meet and see where this will go. Until next time, more to come...

First Two Posters

After my last meeting, Joesph and I came to the conclusion that while the borders looked nice, they largely took the attention off of the composition as a whole. So in effect, this was the major change in the overall look and feel of the posters. Having seen them now with and without, I can confidently say that they tend to flow better without the borders.

Keeping the University logo in the top center of the page also has helped keep a unifying theme of sorts. In creating these posters I seemed to have come across an unlikely aspect: while painterly in composition, they are far from painted images. Granted I intended this to a point, I was unsure then just as to how it work out. So far I'm pleased with the results and intend to do similar stylistic choices on the latter two posters.

Constructing a lifelike flame for the candle proved to be more challenging than initially thought.
Initially using an image pulled from Google, the candle used was far too simple, and well, flat.
After looking through various photoshop tutorials, I came across one that showed how to construct lifelike flames using the clouds and difference clouds filters. Completing the tutorial, I then selected the desired flame using the quickmask tool, separating it into three layers on the final poster I was then able to change the lighting settings, also using the liquify filter to give even more of a flame like quality.

A Christmas Carol - Rough

For this poster the goal I set on was to make less Christmasy. Given the subject matter that could be seen as a bit of a stretch, but a challenge nontheless. In oder to do so I designed the poster as if it were an actual moment of Dickens' tale. Specifically the initial meeting Scrooge has with the Ghost of Christmas Present. So far I am quite pleased with the results, but after some more tweaking on the candle and font, I should 2 of 4 in terms of completion.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Deviating from the original sketch in terms of composition, I made as best an attempt as possible to keep as close to that sketch as possible. Allowing some creative liberties I feel that as a first poster this went quite well. Having actually watched the play (albeit in film form) helped too in the creation of the piece.

The fonts used were "Boister," an old english font that I downloaded and Georgia for the logo. For the logo I tried to do something similar to what I did in the previous posters, while not doing the same at all, if that's believable.
In designing the logo I tried to make as simple as possible as this would be the unifying theme of each poster. The font again is "Georgia" as I was unsure of what the real font for the school logo was. Initially I tried to incorporate a nautilus shell into the design, but I realized the further I went with that idea, the less simple it became.

So here we are nearing the end of the semester and it's crunch time. Can I pull this off? Three to four more posters in roughly a week. Yeah I think so.

More to come....