For my circus poster project, I created a poster showcasing the main entertainment events for a circus in the 20th century. I wanted to give this piece a vintage feel because that is the vibe that I get when I think of a circus. I took inspiration from the movie, The Greatest Showman, because it was also about a 20th century circus.
My first step was to create the main focal point of the piece. I used an image of a circus ringleader riding a horse because I liked the colors and I thought that it captured what I wanted the tone to be for the piece. I used one of the template downloads to make the design surrounding the ringleader.
Next, I added a title piece at the top of the poster to serve as a headline and to attract interest from people who could potentially be interested in the circus. I used a template and font from the download. I also matched the red color to the color of the jacket that the ringleader is wearing so that all parts of the poster matched well together.
After that, I added another template that says "circus show" on it in order to describe what exactly the poster was advertising. I decided to use the same shade of red as I used at the top, and I used the same font as well. I also added in an image of a circus tent to add more detail to the template outline, and I added a year at the bottom to give the piece context and provide more information to the audience.
Next, I added the main attractions to the bottom of the poster. I found these images online by googling "vintage circus attractions". The one on the left is a picture of a boy that has a lot of facial hair and was called a "wolf boy" and the right one is a "bearded woman", both of these were also characters in The Greatest Showman. The middle one is a cartoon of a more traditional circus with an elephant doing a trick, and a clown and monkey on the bottom and top. I chose these images because they encompassed much of what a 20th century circus would've looked like through the attractions and what they were called.
After that, I added a frame around both of the side attractions at the bottom of the poster by using a template from the downloaded folders. I also added small connectors to the sides of the middle outline by using a leafy branch effect from the download folder as well.
Next, I changed the colors of the template borders to a more vibrant gold color in order to make the piece more cohesive. I also turned down the saturation on the elephant so that the tones matched better with the rest of the colors in the piece. I also added the bevel emboss effect on the text to make it pop more and add dimension.
Finally, I added a texture layer over everything which darkened the colors and created a more uniform look throughout the piece.
Here is my final piece:
