More Quick Designs

I did more quick designs for the end of year show branding. I limited each one to about 5-10 mins each so I could get a good range and really experiment with form, how all the elements sit on the page and how bold they are. Some of the posters are really just that, quick posters which aren’t particularly great but worked well as tests, however some worked out better, which will be the ones I look to improve.

As you can see from these prior designs, I started kind of over complicating designs and adding in too many visual elements. When I was walking through the corridor looking at posters on the wall, some of the clearest and boldest ones literally just have big type filling the width of the page, so I decided to try and simplify things down with these designs. The first design, in black, is rather simple, laying out the text centred on the page with the ‘Leeds arts uni’ in an orange so it really pops and stands out from the black. The line of copy ‘trend setter’ assumes more of a visual role, being mirrored on the top and bottom. I made it outlined so that in the hierarchy of type, Leeds arts uni is read first, but perhaps it should be the other way round, if we really want people to see ‘trend setter’ or ‘risk taker’ first and be drawn in by this concept. This next poster uses large type orientated towards the top left and bottom right of the page, I like this layout and shape on the page because if someone was reading a book, they read from the top left to the bottom right, so it works quite well. I decided to put the line ‘Trend Setter’ intersecting the big top lines of type and have that same line repeating. I changed it to an outline so it didn’t obscure the text behind too much. The design is undoubtedly very bold and I do quite like it but theres just something I don’t like about it, possible it is the intersecting text, maybe it could be reduced in quantity.

These next two designs marry together the simpler approach I’ve been trying and the repetitive lines of text. I think the more minimal approach works very well - the name of the uni is able to be very large and the primary component of the composition while the repeated line of copy is emphasised by the repetition and fills the space nicely being in a box like shape. The two posters were both experiments but actually with a third they could work quite nicely as a set. 

This last design is my favourite. I think it works because its simple yet so eye catching; the gradient shapes add another dimension to the poster making it look 3D and dynamic with the type going behind or in front of it. I like only repeating the copy 3 times because it still gives it that emphasis however its not too overbearing. Having the uni name and ‘end of year show fit into the shapes works very nicely as well and the composition seems well balanced with them orientated tom either side. I also like contrasting the black lines of copy with the uni name and info in white, it really splits the design up and clarifies that the information is different. I am going to create another 2 of these posters in different colours with slightly different shapes  to see what they look like as a set.