For this assignment, I wanted to create a poster that would advertise the Los Medanos College Art Department in a modern/contemporary/conceptual fashion. In essence, I wanted to give the Art Department an up-to-date look, especially in terms of how abstract design has become. In the 1960s, artists changed their thinking about what art and design is; if they create something to be art, then it is art — I designed my Art of Success poster with this ideology in mind. Also, I wanted to intentionally produce a design that was original — something unique and not of the ordinary.

 

Before beginning the conceptualization process, I first conducted research on what kinds of modern/contemporary poster designs have been made in the past. This included anything from current design agencies to past innovative institutions such as the Bauhaus. I am a man of detail and patterns, however, I am also a man of minimalism, and for this project I wanted to balance both styles. After researching and selecting my sources of inspiration, I decided that typography and simple/minimal (colorful) shapes would make for an interesting composition.

 

The fonts I used are AHAMONO Monospaced and Baron Neue. Baron Neue was used for the uppercase body type whereas AHAMONO was used for the subtitle text surrounding the body type. These typefaces contrasted well with one another as one was bold and abstract/geometric whereas the other is minimal and slim. For the background, I created three lava lamp blob shapes, drawing inspiration from the colorful and doodly patterns from 70s, 80s and 90s eras. For the “Art of Success” body type, I chose to justify the text, except for the “of” portion which was centered intentionally to keep the eye from getting lost in the background or in the detailed footer information.