The goal of this project is to create an all-type poster for Banned Books Week 2022, it must include a banned book of some sort, with a conceptual original headline relating to it, the date of the event, some body copy, and a byline. To force us out of our comfort zone we were assigned the colors, with the fifth color being our choice. (Spoiler, I was very uncomfy.)
Research and Brainstorming
I was feeling pretty overwhelmed from the get-go, I'm working on getting inspiration from research and brainstorming instead of "oh my god I'm a terrible designer how have I made it this far I can't compete with this" vibes.
I also started looking into some banned books, I made a list of ones I found interesting. I was very intrigued by children's books, but I ultimately ended up choosing books I had read before (kind of). The books I chose were Lord of the Flies, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, and the Marriam Webster Dictionary (see what I mean by "kind of"?)
I made brain maps so I had a lil somethin' somethin' to work with when it came to sketches and doodles.
I know it may be wise to look at other Banned Books Week posters, but I always worry I'm going to accidentally recreate one without realizing it.
Sketches and Doodles
My preliminary work throughout this entire process is just an absolute mess. I thought I had a million and a half years to get everything done and was like "I'll take my time, is okie dokie" (but was a classic case of it being NOT okie dokie).
I started out being most attracted to the idea of the dictionary, but quickly realized it was gonna be one hell of a time trying to make it look not boring. I liked my first concept and headline for One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest most and had a difficult time trying to think of others, I liked the idea of doing a rabbit but couldn't think of a good headline. With Lord of the Flies I originally was going with "the Children Suffer" headline, but it didn't really go with any of the imagery I thought of, and I had to go back to the drawing board.
This section contains spoilers, I ended up deciding to go with Lord of the Flies "Are You Seeing Clearly?" and came back to do some quick layout sketches before going to 75% and full sizes.
Thumbnails
Remember when I said my preliminary work is an absolute mess? This is the proof, I feel so sure even the first thumbnails I ever did in this class looked better than this. But I have a confession, these were done in a "I need SOMETHING to show in class, ANYTHING, or else..." haste, and I didn't have time to go back and try to make them all pretty like.
I did the tried and true "this sucks and is not recommended" method of just pretty much making it bigger to the thumbnail size but not REALLY changing anything.
Intermediate
In the interest of time, I decided to just pick one and go with it, and take the hit in points. I thought about going straight to a full-size final, but when every idea is already so bare and naked, I'd be a bit silly to do that, I find that I do better if I gradually work up with handwork.
I originally really liked the idea of having the body copy in the glasses, but I started to worry about what it would look like when it came to color, a light color wouldn't be easy to read and a dark color would make it look like sunglasses, which is not the look we're going for here.
I apologize for the sudden drop in photo quality, I was a fool and did something silly. I left the paper on the bed (which as we all know is a great kitty bed) and my sweet stinky old man stepped on it after coming in from a wet outside. I couldn't bring myself to put it down on the brand new nice scanner glass.
Hand Final
Still a pretty yucky hand final, but could honestly be worse with my track record with this project so far. It was incredibly rushed but I felt like I had to honor the process and just do it, even if it was very rough still.
And as I'm typing this just now, I'm realizing I totally misspelled "Banned" at the bottom of the poster.
B&W Computer Prog
At this point, I was still feeling pretty not great about what I was making, but this is when the panic really set in, and I hate panicking, but it gives me no time to sit around and second guess myself, it's just go time.
I think this is the most computer outputs I've ever done, it feels pretty nice to be able to say "look at all these changes I made" even though I know lots of people couldn't care less. I'm glad I took the time to sit down and look at the printed piece and make notes, it helped me make sure I was making all the adjustments I was thinking about.
Color Studies & Mini Applications
Color matching was actual hell, it was so stressful and I cried so much and cursed the printer to the point that we bought a new printer.
I had a really difficult time choosing a fifth color, mostly because all the colors I chose were colors already on the paint color card we were given. I eventually just needed to pick something, and I chose the bottom one with the maroonish color.
I started liking the poster a lot more as soon as I started adding color, which was a huge relief since 1) I was starting to not hate it. and 2) I was increadibly uncomfortable with the colors I was given, I had no idea what i was going to do especially with the orange. Looking back and looking at the colors now, I like them a lot. A lesson properly taught and learned.
Final
Funnily enough, despite how incredibly behind I was this entire process, it's also the earliest I've ever gotten anything printed and mounted for school (BEFORE dark the night before, I'll take some brownie points please.)
There were several points throughout this process where I was strategizing how I could get out of showing this at the main big critique, I thought about maybe I should just come in super late, maybe I need to just privately ask it not to be displayed, maybe I need to just turn it in late and take the hit to the points, but we got to a point that I'm not ashamed of, and I'm really glad about that.
It's far from perfect, I don't LOVE it by any means, but I've come to grow fond of it, and I need to enjoy it before I inevitably need to kill my darling.