This project focuses on building skills in typography through emotional expression.  The assignment entails creating a 16” by 20” poster representing a form of emotional expression using only type. This project is a poster which expresses the feeling of frustration brought on by adhd. The poster has deep contrast with a black background consisting of repetitive text in a soft gray color displaying the symptoms of adhd. Over the small print the word “frustrated” is sprawled across the page in a striking red color in a way that expresses the deep anger and frustration one may have from experiencing adhd. Surrounding the word frustration are various sizes of words that are common misconceptions or feelings of the mental disorder. These words are in various shades of the color orange, which is the official color of adhd awareness month. This poster sends an expressive  message on frustration through the use of typography. 

ADHD

For this project I researched the definition of ADHD, it’s symptoms and common misconceptions about the disorder. As someone who is diagnosed with ADHD I wanted to incorporate the symptoms and struggles one may have when they are from it. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is classified as a neurological disorder among children and adults that causes an inability to concentrate. The symptoms of ADHD are loss of focus, Short attention span,  Learning difficulties, Reading difficulties, Sensory issues, Hypersensitivity, Anxiety, Hyperactivity, Memory Loss, Restlessness, Fidgeting, Sleep apnea, Speaking out of turn, Forgetfulness, Irritability, Impatience and Impulsiveness. In psychology, frustration is a common emotional response to opposition, related to anger, annoyance and disappointment. 

Frustration arises from the perceived resistance to the fulfillment of an individual’s will or goal and is likely to increase when a will or goal is denied or blocked. Adhd can cause these feelings of intense frustration as it can be harder for one to complete tasks without struggling or falling behind. ADHD symptoms can appear as early as between the ages of 3 and 6 and can continue through adolescence and adulthood. Symptoms of ADHD can be mistaken for emotional or disciplinary problems or missed entirely in children who primarily have symptoms of inattention, leading to a delay in diagnosis. Adults with undiagnosed ADHD may have a history of poor academic performance, problems at work, or difficult or failed relationships.

While sketching my thumbnails, I attempted  to find the best way to arrange type in a way that expresses extreme frustration. I Knew that I also wanted elements relating to adhd in some sort. My sketches to the left are what I ended up with and while reviewing them my professor and I decided I should focus more on the feeling of frustration than the adhd. My final design is a mash up between the sketch in the bottom left corner and the sketch in the bottom left corner. While I wanted frustration to be the main point I still incorporated many adhd elements into my final poster. 

Before deciding on my final poster design, I only had one fully complete design for a rough draft. This version to the right is the only documentation I have for different versions of this design poster, but there was a lot of changes in between version 1 and my final poster. I changed the font multiple times

 I used a decorative font in this version of my poster and it was not helping me get the emotional expression across any more than a sans-serif font would. I made sure to remember to get rid of the decorative fonts for my final design. The colors I chose for this design were initially to represent hyperactivity but the colors clashed together. I really liked the way the word “frustrated” looked set in different font sizes at different angles, so I decided to keep that as my main focal point for my final design. 

For my final poster design, I decided to use a less decorative font and decided to remove the “ADHD” graphic from the background. I used gill sans for my font and changed the colors of the type to correspond with adhd awareness colors. My final poster expresses frustration without being too busy.