Exercise: Museum Posters

To start this exercise off I highlighted and analysed the exercise sheet. I started to note down my thought processes around the sides of the exercise and the first things that came to my mind. I often mind that I can forget certain things and need to have that written reminder just to keep me focused. Now the first thing I noted down was that I do not live anywhere near a museum so I don't have access to one, now I did think about travelling to one however I thought for the outcome It would give me I could use the internet to source photos. The museum I chose was the Louvre. Now it just so happens that earlier this year I was in Paris and did visit the Louvre so I could use my own photos as reference, which I was quite excited about.

To start my research off I selected a wide range of artefacts. I wanted to focus on Kids first, I thought this would be an interesting challenge to try and get kids to the Louvre. I wanted to get some of the exciting elements of the Louvre, I thought this would be something Kids would be most interested in and excited about.

My own photo of Venus de Milo

I thought statues would be the thing that would spark kids excitement because they're big and very visual and don't require you to think deeply. I also thought at this initial moment that they have a sense of personality and distinct characteristics, I thought that could be carried over to a cartoon illustration.

This was the website I used to source the list and images

https://www.planetware.com/paris/louvre-f-p-l.htm

My thought process with the Mona Lisa was just fame, even at a young age they would know about the painting and how famous it is, I remember knowing about this painting in Primary school.

When I saw the Kings quarters, I had the idea to "Be a King for the day" I thought that would be an enticing offer and something cool for kids. It would also be educational.

Branding and marketing is the area of graphic design that currently I want to go into, I have a massive passion for it and whenever I get an opportunity within these exercises and assignments to spend some time on this subject I jump at it.

I started to research into what each age groups want and respond well too. I used various websites like the following.

https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/web-design-for-age-groups/

This website centred around web design, even though it is in a different area of graphic design, I still thought that the information would be transferable. This really helped me to be more confident when designing my poster, it gave me a foundation and things to remember throughout the process. 

I am very interested in science and phycology that relates to graphic design, for this reason, I delved a little further into colour theory and why kids like bright colours. I found an article on Sciencing.com

https://sciencing.com/do-bright-colors-appeal-kids-5476948.html

The poster had to be bold and colourful, children respond well to bright as their eyes are not fully developed yet. Brighter colours are more stimulating and interesting and help children to make sense of their environment. Children also have a relatively short attention span, so the information on the poster needs to be bold and quick to read. Kids will not be bothered about big chunks of info, from the research I knew I needed to make my poster very visual and focus more on the illustrations. Kids love cartoons, at a younger age they are not able to decipher complex 3D shapes as well, they prefer basic animations, also they love seeing quick fast-paced action as this is more stimulating and delivers more visual pleasure. I also wanted to create something bold and exciting because at a young age this is a childs outlook on the world, its innocent and I wanted to do everything to preserve that.

Teenagers were a trickier subject, however from my research and just generally how I would want to be marketed to at that age I discovered teenagers need to be marketed to as if they were adults. I found this really interesting article about marketing towards generation z on the Adobe blog page.

https://theblog.adobe.com/designing-for-generation-z-how-to-engage-todays-super-savvy-kids-and-teens/

One of the main topics and my biggest take away was that you should not baby it down, one quote that stood out to me was. "If you find yourself thinking, “I chose this element because young kids like this,” think twice." I also should think about embracing trends such as Neon gradients and textures. It is important to have a toned-down colour palette to reflect the toned down mood. 

For Adults it was quite easy, I feel a large part of general graphic design is marketed towards adults anyway or at least they are a lot of the time part of the demographic. The design needed to be more sophisticated and whilst there can most definitely be colour, its use needs to be tasteful. I also found when making a quick google search that there are quite a lot of guided Louvre tours, so this would give me an opportunity to have more educational elements in my poster.

The next thing I did was to start sketching, I chose to start with the kid's poster, I wanted to create a character that would help guide the kids and provide a friendly focus. I chose Aphrodite, I thought this would also play into a child's interest in Mythological beings. 

One thing I enjoyed doing here and I thought went well was experimenting with different art styles. Just sketching out the character multiple different times gave me plenty of ideas and inspiration. I played around with having the character seem quite childish with large eyes and a big round face. However, I decided against that approach as I wanted to make her seem more responsible and able to guide a child around the museum.

I then experimented with different approaches and compositions, I had this idea of a 'whole new world' I wanted to play on the idea that the museum had levels and levels of art and culture from all around the world. From my initial brainstorming, I noted down that children needed to be excited and one of the reasons parents do not take their kids to museums is because they are not as stimulating as let's say a theme park. From my thumbnails, I experimented with having this exciting and colourful world and Aphrodite to help guide us through. I wanted to also think about exiting poster composition and I included a frame for my poster, something to draw the kids eyes into the middle of the poster where the main chunk of content is. I also thought this played well into the exploring idea, it reminded me of a forest clearing.

However, the idea I ended up using and was the happiest with was the idea of an open door. The idea was that everything around the poster would be 'boring adult stuff' and then this door would be open and inside be a 'whole new colourful world' to explore.

Now the next thing I did was incredibly impulsive and random but I booked a last minute trip to Prague with my girlfriend, it was not for the exercise but just because I like to explore however one thing I was open to was to be inspired.

One thing I was very inspired by were these magnets on the street, they featured the bold primary colours I was after and I thought displayed Prague in a colourful exciting way, I really loved the art style and thought it would work perfectly in my work, I could recreate an exciting and colourful scene to have behind the door. 

I then did some more research into this art style, I used Pinterest to find more colourful scenery

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/50665564530072746/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/50384089556304378/

These were the two images I found, I loved how playful they were.

Image 1

Image 2

What I then did was use these as a reference to start sketching out different ideas, as you can see from the sketchbook page below I experimented with the mountains and animals. 

I wanted to include things relating to the subject matter. This statue is called the Marly horse and is displayed in the Louvre museum. Using the art style of the 'unicorn dinosaur?' from reference image 1 I sketched out some ideas. I also wanted to incorporate some Islamic art so I sketched out a peacock in this style as well, the peacock is found. One thing I found when doing these sketches was I was quite successful in recreating something in a particular art style, I did not just copy what was there but created something new that could fit. I did this by focusing on the main aspects of the art style, such as exaggerating features and block shapes. I thought both my peacock and horse were successful renditions. I then also included a Parisian Bridge to tie in the location of the museum.

I wanted to try and use my Ipad as much as possible to complete this illustration, however, there were some things I noticed it was good for and then others not. For example, it was great for painting Aphrodite but when I tried to create the background, I suffered as whilst on procreate you can create pretty much anything I was missing some of the tools and vector shapes from illustrator. I don't know if these tools are available on procreate and I just can't find them or know how to use them however I am comfortable using illustrator.

This was the illustration of Aphrodite I completed on procreate. I was really happy with the outcome and really tried to include a lot of texture with the robes and the cracking, I thought this added a deeper layer of detail, whilst illustrating her I was looking at a few tutorials on how to create the feel of cloth and I feel whilst it is not perfect it does work well. One thing I would want to work on in the future would be how to colour the drawings more professionally, I feel that if I did not have the cracks and textures on the chest it would look quite plain and flat.

Another thing I used procreate to illustrate was my horse figure, this where I experimented with the bright primary colours and patterns.

I then went onto illustrator to create the background scene for my full illustration I am happy I went over to illustrator as it was a lot easier to create the mountains and flowers with the pen tool and shapes, using illustrator I can have things precise, one thing that I worry about with my artwork is that it isn't professional enough, I feel like I do not have the skills and knowledge as of yet to make something intricate, I have a fear that it will look like a botch job. However, I feel better about something when I have used the vector tools on illustrator as I know it was bang on correct. For example with the mountains, the 'snow' on the top is a separate shape which I have then masked over,  now because I have used guides and the pen tool I know that the angles are correct and it is perfectly spaced and symmetrical. I know often some things cannot be picked up by the naked eye but last year I had my portfolio reviewed by someone from a design agency and they did pick up on the small details, that is why I want to be more careful.

I then used procreate and my apple pencil to illustrate the door and compiled everything together, I used photoshop to then drop everything onto a picture of the Louvre, I added a white and black box to display some text and then saved the poster. I wanted to use this opportunity to add handwritten text. I thought this would make the poster more friendly and relatable to a child as the text seems personal and innocent.

I then took the work back into procreate to add the hand written text. 

Now overall I was ultimately happy with the work, this was the concept I had imagined and I liked the personal effect the text had. I also liked the composition of the text and how I used shape and visual elements to style it and improve the flow.

Now I then went on to show my girlfriend who was with me at the time and my little brother over facetime. My girlfriend's feedback was 'I like it but I thought it was supposed to be colourful' and my little brother just seemed interested in what was behind the door. I then realised that everything around the door was just boring and grey and I thought it kept the focus from the door. My brother did not respond to the background, and whilst I thought it added to the idea of escapism, I am not the desired demographic, so I thought if it was not adding any colour or message, remove it.

I then opted for a white background, I used some grey shading to add a horizon and floor. But on reflection, this is a stronger background because it is white and plain it not only creates good contrast and helps the colours to stand out but also keep the focus on the door, it is plain and not busy but in this case, that simpleness works successfully. 

To give the poster some more colour and personality, I changed the black and white blocks for more colour, I pulled forwards some of the elements from background illustration such as the mountain tops, flowers and horse. The font at the top is actually a handwritten font I found on Dafont.com it is called Luna. I then completed the poster with some light hearted and hand-written quotes.

What went well?

Overall I am super happy with this exercise, I looked at the final work and was excited by it. I think the illustrations are eye-catching and colourful. I think the market research on my audiences helped to point me in a solid direction and all my external research into poster design and even the magnets I found in Prague have all led to an art style I am proud of. I think it also reflects the sense of imagination and wonder I possess myself and I am excited to use it again.

What did I learn?

Throughout this project, I learned quite a bit on demographics and audience and how to design and illustrate based on each one. It was helpful to research more into it and make notes to which I could bounce back to and re read throughout. I also felt like my view on poster design has changed a little bit, before this exercise and before I did any freelance work I thought that poster design was simply placing information onto a piece of paper and making it look nice, now after reflection and this exercise I know it is deeper than that and I need to have a solid concept of direction for the poster, to help it be original and less generic and also to give it personality.

What could I have done better?

One thing I would do differently if I had the opportunity would be to give a little bit more attention to the composition at the end, I had thought a lot about the illustration but I did not flesh out how I would display my title and even what other information I would put. I had briefly written down 'come and explore' but never really finalised anything, I had to then think on the spot and it was a lot of time moving things around to look good. I think before I move into photoshop I should have a more complete idea of what the whole poster should look like rather than just half, and also what text I want to include. Even though these are not illustrative elements they are important to the overall poster as a whole.