Grad Show Poster

Last week, we had a shift from what we were doing in web design so far and started to work on our graduation show poster. Maybe because it was about our own graduation or it has been said that it's gonna be challenging and unusually stressful, I was a bit nervous. But I tried to take that challenge as an opportunity to get out from my comfort zone, to look at things differently and get some new set of practice. I reminded myself that even the challenges have their own reasons to be there and what you learn after them is precious. So I got my peace of mind back.

I didn't quite think about visuals for this time. All I wanted was to do something with typography. I even didn't bother to create a mind map, which I used to do all the time in my previous print design projects and have seen it quite helpful. I was uncomfortable, judging my ideas for not having solid concepts yet, but I wanted to do everything different this time. Just play, try things and change it. So, here comes the first poster...

I didn't like it. It was too simple, flat or boring. Without even going really far on that one (actually I tried couple of more on this idea with different colors, longer format and straight positioning), I thought it's not working. My muscles needed some sort of relax because of tension I was creating on myself, so I tried something more fun, still not with a concept but at least playful. I did this one in photoshop.

Ok, I liked it better than the previous one for sure because I've spent much more time on typography and had so much fun but it was not quite there either. I wanted to have some sort of concept, a message to convey to viewer, which was very important for me. I revised my ideas again, but each time I lost more from my confidence, which created some sort of negative thinking that leads to further criticism, skepticism about my skills, creativity. I stopped doing anything on the poster till Sunday. I just wanted to get some fresh idea and got back to my very very first thumb in my sketchbook, which I hadn't even tried yet. I was too scared to apply it because I didn't believe that I have the skills to try what I had in my mind. This one would be heavily inspired by the book, David Berman's "Do Good Design, which Tene had recommended us to read. I was also scared to convey that inspiration truly and nicely to my concept. But I had to give it a try. Here it comes the last one.

I imagined an alley in Vancouver, which was full of electrical wires. I tried to give a feeling of you turning from that alley and coming across with a wall graffiti or writing on a wall. I took the words "Design Can Change" in the sense of the power that design has to change the world. I wanted to keep it as simple as I could in terms of colors or textures to leave the viewer with the message alone. I wanted to have a clean design. I am not very happy about my execution but I am happy that I gave my idea a try. What mattered to me was the effort that I spent on it and the challenge itself.