word play poster

for this assignment, we were asked to design a poster based around a chosen word including related imagery and supporting text if needed. We were given a list of words to chose from and asked to gather imagery based on said word. The finished poster was to be in black and white and could include one spot color of our choice.

word list: sight, smell, touch, listen, fear, peace, chaos, love, anger, urban, loneliness, hate, nature, grand, silence

for my project, I chose the word love, but I wanted to focus on the platonic love of family and friendships rather than romantic. Before collecting images, we were asked to create a word list of terms relating to our word while highlighting the ones we felt were most important.

our first collection of images was based in signs. We kept in mind symbol, Icon, and Index while collecting and eventually placed some of these images in a five by five grid called a matrix. we used the matrix to help gather relatable and accurate elements to use later when designing our poster. I first placed images in the center row of the grid, with more personal representations on the left and universal ones on the right. From this row, we focused on the shapes and forms of these images and placed more elaborate representations going up and more simple ones going down.

we then created sketches of possible poster designs and began digitizing. I chose a red color to include and edited with gradient maps, duotones, posterization, and black and white filters. I chose imagery from my matrix that I felt best fit my concept and included the word "platonic" before "love" to further support and enforce my ideas.

after our first critique, I decided to continue with my first digitization of my word and added and removed elements based on suggestions. I was first encouraged to include more imagery that supported my concept of friendships.

next step:

at this point, my design was starting to become cluttered with little room for everything to breathe. I cleaned up some elements and made adjustments before turning in my final poster.

final: