Goal
Design a visually compelling poster on a political, social, or environmental topic of your choice.
Software: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop
* I do not own the background image that is used. It is a free to use image from Pixabay (uploaded by Free-Photos)
Process
I made the choice to focus on marine pollution as a topic for my poster because I was exploring this topic for another class so I had a few ideas up my sleeve that I wanted to create.
This assignment took about 4-5 class sessions of presenting our designs and receiving feedback. Based on feedback from my peers and professor, my initial designs were too detailed and the message I was trying to portray wasn't clear.
This led to my choice in replacing the quote in my first draft with a more direct message and adding a call for action so that the purpose of my poster would be more transparent. I also decided to focus on a single sea animal's perspective instead of many. The goal of this choice was to declutter the poster and avoid having too many components that would overwhelm the poster.
Drafts
Design choices
The jellyfish, plastic bag, and type are lean towards a white shade of color. To have these components stand out, I used a dark background. I altered the jellyfish and plastic bag images by recoloring them several times in order to achieve the translucent image. I also added more tentacles to the jellyfish so that it would look more similar to the plastic bag. The decision to place the two objects side by side was meant for an easier comparison of the two. The font is also aligned in a way that would improve readability since people tend to read top to bottom, left to right.
Reflection
A lesson that I learned from this process would be "less is more". In other words, it would be in my best interest to keep my designs simple and direct! I have noticed that I pay close attention to detail and so I end up overthinking about what sort of components must go into my work so that my point would get across easily. However, I realize that in doing this, I get the opposite effect: my message gets lost in the process and the audience doesn't understand what I am trying to achieve. Less is truly more.
