Chosen Haiku:
The world within me
Is a thief that never sleeps:
Stealing my real life
- David Jones
POSTER 1 Geometric shapes
PLANNING:
I extracted 3 words from this Haiku which I thought captured the idea and mood:
Consuming, Hidden and Imagination.
Then, for each word, I generated a variation of imagery which portrayed it, while considering different principles of form and design. This would give me more inspiration in my developing stage.
I analysed the Haiku, and the meaning of the words (interpreting the "story" of it) to find symbols I could use in my piece.
Here, I picked out some of the symbols from my story interpretation, and combined them with my generated 'mood' imagery - I picked out 6 unique options to refine.
I decided that I would use negative space using a black frame and a white (eye) circle within - and inside that white cirlce would be my mood imagery in black.
I did a bit of experimenting trying the different options, and used cut out pieces (for creating layers), as well as the marker. This gave me a clear view of my poster concepts, and then chose then one I liked most.
I used cutting as my poster making method:
FINAL POSTER
REFLECTION:
The idea that I intend to portray in this poster is the world of the inner mind, and the complexity of one’s imagination. The shape is meant to resemble an eye - what others see vs one’s inner visualisations.
Throughout my process, I have applied theories from the DES101 lectures: design thinning with an enquiring mind: ( intuition, curiosity, research, reference, and inspiration) and paid an extra amount of time to plan and produce as many ideas as possible. I considered the design elements: ‘relational; and ‘practical’ in particular, as I wanted strong symbolism in this poster, so it could create a feeling for the viewer. In the generating, planning, and refining phase, I took inspiration from elements and principles of 2D design (1) to discover different compositions, shapes, and movements I could utilise for better aesthetics/representation.
I have applied negative space and contrast - the darkness (using black) on the outside shows the outside perception of someone who may seem dull or simple or does not express themselves well. However, their inner world may be extremely lively, and bright (using white). Inside the circle, dynamic shapes and movement are used to symbolize one’s complex or ~ out of the ordinary ~thoughts. One of my ‘mood’ words was consuming, so the shapes almost squeeze the edge of the circle. I applied the rule of thirds for the placement of the objects within the frame (edge of circle, components inside the circle).
A few things I could have done better, and I will work on next time are: researching and finding more inspiration. In this case (for the shapes inside the eyes) it would have been helpful to create a mood board (from other geometric posters), so my ideas could be more playful, as well as helping me actually use geometric shapes (as mine were rather curved/organic like). (1)
POSTER 2 Movie Poster
PLANNING:
Week 3 studio session:
Generating title ideas, imagery + wireframes. This gave me a basic concept of what I wanted in my movie poster. I decided that my 'movie' would be a drama/thriller called "veil" and I would use a face as the main imagery.
MOVIE STUDY
I did a bit of study/research about the basics of movie poster design - the use of visual signifiers (colour, type, graphics) across the different genres (1). And looking at colour more in depth (2) since I wanted colour to be a strong element in my poster, to create emotion.
I also took notes from the week 3 DES101 Lectures + Studio to consider for my poster.
MOOD BOARD
Knowing my poster concept - Drama/thriller - face - I chose a wireframe and imagery which suited it, and took some inspiration from movie posters which had a similar composition (large face/object in frame) to study the proportions. I also looked at some "drama" movie posters to analyse their colour/imagery.
I had my original wireframe and ideas, and chose a few of the posters which I liked to sketch out to see their compositions (seeing what was common, what would work well), and then redrew two wireframe ideas using these proportions.
The (taking into account my inspirations + genre study) I planned out the light and colour for the poster, and decided I would use a 'dramatic ' photo for the poster (instead of drawing), as this could make it more emotive.
PHOTO & ILLUSTRATOR
I took a photo myself (with my blue lights and a lamp on the side), which would cast a shadow so that my face could be split 1/2 in the light, 1/2 in the dark. I then edit the photo to accentuate a red colour on my face to make it 'glow' (for colour and light contrast). Image was cropped to match rule of thirds.
I added a black shadow to the left of the frame to accentuate the half darkness
Following the formats from my inspiration posters, I made a blurb as well as production companies for the description text
As a final touch, I used a semi-transparent orange brush (which matched highlights of my skin) to draw shapes on the poster. My final choice was the third, which I then refined slightly.
I tested different (but similar styled) fonts on my movie poster, and chose the one which looked the best aesthetically and fit the concept.
REFLECTION
I believe that this poster generation was a positive gain for me. This experience has made me realise the effectiveness of using theory, research, and observing common practices in design. One thing that could have limited the potential is that I did not explore many final poster plans (I only chose one option to go through with). If I had instead drawn some other refined plans (e.g. with asymmetrical composition). And experimented with these in illustrator, I could have more/better options to choose from.
Colour - I have chosen to use the colour blue (very common in dramas - symbolise depression, sadness and tranquility (3), as well as the colour red (great - emotional impact, symbolise power and passion), and high saturations to create a strong mood for the poster. These two colours contrast with each other which represents the characters’ inner conflict with their emotions.
Photo- In drama movie posters, dramatic photography is often taken from film stills or emotional character portraits (2), to recreate the emotional mood of the film. Therefore, I used a close up face portrait.
Composition - I used the rule of thirds technique as well as poster examples analysis to create my final composition: face in upper two thirds horizontally, and in the middle third vertically. The face is at the top of the hierarchy, with the title at the very bottom and small type (I saw this was an effective format from my inspirations)
Symbolism - I played with light to portray the idea of hidden identity/feelings. The right side is the outer self, which I used bright/colourful light, which contrast to half of the face is with the shadow, which acts like a ‘veil’ over the characters real emotions and thoughts. ‘X’ is a symbol of warning or ‘the end’, hinting something dramatic may occur.
POSTER 3 Storyboard
STORYTIME!!!
Here, I wanted to create a little story about the concept of one's inner world. I re-used the concept of the outside vs inner perception, and immediately had a story idea.
I had a basic concept for my story - a boy living in his imagination, as well as some basic story events. I mapped out a timeline to figure out the approximate duration and time placement of each setting / story twist
I then broke down the timeline into 12 scenes. I broke these down into action scenes to fill in between each setting change.
1 - Quick sketch
Following my scene plan, I did a quick storyboard to get the basic gist of the setting, characters and the speed of the story, and the location of the plot twists on the storyboard posters.
I also framed the scenes using different camera shots (mid shot, zooming in, extreme close up etc. )
2- Beginning to refine
Here, I did another sketch with more details of the elements in each scene (to make it easier to follow when I start cutting out shapes). At first I did zooming into the eye, which would open up layers, but I generated another similar idea to test - which was zooming into the eye to see a 'door'
3 - Character development
I developed a unique character and its' details - body, face and hair, so it would be consistent throughout each scene, as well as being distinguishable from other characters.
4 - Final story plan
I created another story plan with the colour component - because I wanted to create a clear contrast in colour for the different settings - to trigger different emotions throughout the sequence.
DESIGN STYLE INSPIRATION
I used NYT Conception (a great illustration story series) as my style inspiration for this poster.
Time to start!
I had my final storyboard plan as well as my 12 scene boxes and colour paper laid out to start cutting!
Outside/bedroom setting.
For the scenes where the boy is alone, in his bedroom, or wherever you could interpret it, I used a cool tone (blue) which often symbolises more sad, lonely or negative emotions. I used the blue marker over my sticky note paper, so the colour tone would be consistent over different shades of the blue.
Inner mind/visualising/dreaming
For the scenes inside the boy's mind, I used bright colours, as well as a warm tone of blue (greenish).
This makes the inside look lively and cheerful (where the boy is happy), so I used a variety of different colours.
Character emotion
I created different body language of the character through using rounder shoulders (boosting chest), or narrow shoulders (shy)m as well as arm placement (front and behind), and matched the corresponding facial expressions.
Adding Texture
I creFollowing my style inspiration, I added more texture to the plain coloured paper using coloured pencils. This makes the imagery more messy/illustrative (like a children's book)
Blues
Over the blue paper, I used a light green and turquoise
Warms
For the warmer colours, I played over an extra layer of yellow/orange
I added texture over each scene, and this is them all done and ready to be stuck in a grid!
REFLECTION
This poster’s target audience is children - it depicts a story of a young boy zoning into his imagination, and being woken up by reality. For this project, I considered film techniques, character and plot development (twists), as well as using illustration inspirations.
Movie scene techniques: I used a wide range of camera shots -mid shots, and showing the progression of zooming in, (to an extreme close up. Wide shots were used to show his p;plentiful imagination ‘world’. I used mise en scene through the shades, saturation and value of colours to create contrast between the worlds. . I created 3 parallel scenes, with the boy standing - in three different settings (bedroom → imagination → bedroom) to show the progression of time in the real worldSome things which I could have spent more time on and improved on next time were: creating a more harmonised colour palette, and exploring different plot twists or settings, to create a more effective story. As I could have added some more meaning to my story, or added ‘easter eggs.
For this poster, I used a ‘children's book style.
Cut out shapes - (often asosociated with childhood). The shapes are quite simple and geometric - composed mostly of primary shapes.
Colour - Colour contrast was used to create a clear comparison between the boys’ outside and inside ‘world’. For the blue, which made most of the shades surrounding the character of a dark colour value - which represents loneliness and sadness. Whereas the colours of his visualisations are extremely bright and express the vibrancy and liveness of the boy’s imagination, these are colours that are also appealing to children's eyes.
Texture - I used colour pencils and markers (also common in childrens’ drawing activities!), to create a sketchy-hand drawn texture on the poster. This helped blend the piece together and made the piece look less flat/unnatural, as it created shadows for the different objects (more depth).
Some things which I could have spent more time on and improved on next time were: creating a more harmonised colour palette, and exploring different plot twists or settings, to create a more effective story. As I could have added some more meaning to my story, or added ‘easter eggs'.
