James O'Leary's profile

Shostakovich Symphony no. 7 "Leningrad" Concert Poster

Designing posters for events/concerts is always fun. The normal requirements of who, when and where were the assignment, but we could go buck wild with our designs. As a former classical musician, I have always been amazed at the visual nightmares that most classical music concert posters seem to be. So, I went off the radar and used my expreience of being in Germany this summer to drive my design. My goals with this work were to:
 
1. Attract a younger, hipper audience to the symphony experience through an edgy design
2. Present the information in a highly eupopean aesthetic without pushing the older symphony goers out of the picture
3. Have fun with a constructavist design in the German language
 
I pulled some books from the shelf and googled some constructavist art and tried to find my bearings in the explosive world of constructionism. Shostakovich Symphony No. 7 (Leningrad) would be the focus of the concert, as this is a war symphony written in the chaos of WWII I needed the poster to represent some of the disconnectedness of his world. Hence the angled and metred copy and headlines. I needed the viewer to work at seeing the information. That is constructvist by nature. My direction of information runs top left to bottom right, but in a messy manner. It works to drive the viewers eyes through the destruction and rubble of Leningrad in an interactive manner. The important information is German in nature - highly organized in a neat little box in the lower left. While it is important information, I subordinated it in order to make a striking visual hook that would allow viewers to easily access the information, yet still have a high degree of hip artistic flair.
Constructavist inspiriation...
...more constructavist inspiriation...
My final poster design
Shostakovich Symphony no. 7 "Leningrad" Concert Poster
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Shostakovich Symphony no. 7 "Leningrad" Concert Poster

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