Kenya, a Different Coffee
A Promotional Poster for Kenya blend Starbucks Coffee:
Starbucks is the "client".
The intended Audience is coffee drinkers aged 35 and older (who consume roughly 3 cups per day, according to a 2015 poll (Saad)).
The intended impact of the poster is to promote this specific blend of coffee to regular coffee drinkers, informing them of the unique qualities of Kenya Medium Roast Coffee: The coffee is grown in the high altitudes of Kenya giving it a bold taste with fruity notes of black currant and grapefruit.
In order to achieve this impact with my design, I highlighted the coffee’s uniqueness by accentuating the fruits, making them the brightest things on the page. The background image shows a field of coffee growing with the mountains of Kenya behind it, demonstrating the altitudes in which this coffee grows, giving it a unique environment from other coffees and a different taste. I demonstrated the coffee’s bold taste, particularly for a medium roast, with the image of the elephant, looking at the viewer head on, near the word, “Bold.” The elephant is also a familiar image, recalling the product, as there is one on the bag of coffee beans.
File Properties
I used the color space CMYK for my document as it is best for printing. When preparing an image to be printed, like a poster, it is best to use CMYK. Converting an RGB image to CMYK creates color separation (Adobe 2017). In addition, working in CMYK allows you to show the client a realistic version of what the printed poster will look like at various working stages because of the limited range of CMYK as compared to RGB.
< >The resolution of my document is 300ppi, a high resolution as it is the best set-up for printing the best quality image for a poster.My document’s dimensions are 5 x 7 inches in order to replicate a real-life 11 x 7 inches standard poster size, but with a smaller document size to be more easily uploaded to Blackboard.
Techniques Used
< >Technique #1 – selections and masking. The selection techniques I used were the quick select tool with edge-refining. The Quick Selection tool finds the full edge, so I used it for the black currant, grapefruits, and elephant, and used the Refine Edge Brush tool to perfect my selections. I also used the Rectangular Marquee tool to add a local adjustment and create a darker rectangle behind the paragraph text to make it and the elephant stand out and to continue the pattern of the poster.I used layer masks to extract the grapefruits, black currant, and the elephant from their original photographs. In addition, I used a layer mask to selectively apply a brightness adjustment to the bottom rectangle portion of the background image.Technique #2 – adjustment layers. I used a levels adjustment for both the black currant and grapefruit layers to tone down the bright, colorfulness of the original images. I used a global adjustment layer to match the color of Kenya blend coffee and create a cohesive background for the fruit to stand out against. The elephant was still not the right tone for the overall image, so in addition to the global adjustment applied to this layer there is also a local adjustment to make it darker. I also selectively applied a brightness adjustment to the background layer to create a dark rectangular space.Technique #3 – typography. I did some research to find a nice header style font, Calluna, and a paragraph style font, Mr Eaves San OT. Calluna was a fitting serif typeface for the header of my poster and for the sub-header, ”Medium Roast Coffee,” and the point type, “Bold & Juicy.” I adjusted the tracking and the kerning slightly on all three to achieve the desired look. Mr Eaves San OT was a good font choice as it came with many different typeface choices and is easily readable for a sans serif type. I adjusted the tracking to account for the various typefaces and sizes I used.I utilized the typographic tool of adding a drop shadow. I applied the shadows of varying sizes, colors, distances, etc. to the three different instances of point type as layer styles to help them stand out against the background and to help with readability.
Works Cited
Adobe. (2018). Photoshop: Image and Color Basics: Color Modes. Retrieved from https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/color-modes.html.
Saad, Lydia. “Americans’ Coffee Consumption is Steady, Few Want to Cut Back.” Gallup News, Well-Being, 29 July 2015, .
