This poster is my submission for the BPA 2021 Annual Conference. It is being held in Orlando, Fl. 

As part of the poster design, I also had to come up with a theme. Many of the winning themes from previous years were centered around the location of the conference. Slogans are also intended to be encouraging or empowering. For example, "Follow Your Dreams," or, "Spread Your Wings."

When I think of Florida, I picture sunshine, nice cars, palm trees, and the 80's. I chose the slogan "Your Place Under the Sun," in reference to both resting under the sun on the beach, and the encouragement to find one's place in their vocational industry. 

I went with an 80's retro wave feel for the background, and for the text effects. I made the sun icon as a vector in Illustrator, and recolored and faded it in Photoshop. The terrain map was also created in Illustrator, and recolored with an outer glow in photoshop. I used a lot of pinks, blues, and neon effects throughout the poster. I also added a skyline specific to Florida to tie it back to the location of the conference.

My favorite bits of this project are the small details that just bring the whole poster together. I put two texture layers over the gradient background to add some interest and separate it more from the foreground. I love this gritty, dirty texture.

I also used some special brushes to add more details. The clouds and stars were both done using brushes.