'Not Your Mother's Postcard'

Whats so significant about postcards anyway?

The postcard project is an essential exercise in design communication because it is the only project in which the designer is allowed total freedom to design a piece of work that is solely about them. There is no, “tailoring the postcard to reflect a company, business, or random individual”, it is completely about the designer, the colors, the font, the images, graphics, etc. By having the freedom to create a postcard that is only about the designer helps to enhance the freedom of creativity, which then allows for great work to be done.

In my postcard I used earth tones, as you might already notice from my past blog posts and descriptions of design, I am a sucker for earth tones. I am not an obnoxious, loud, or “in-your-face” kind of person, therefore bright neon, or fluffy girly colors such as pastel pinks, purples, and neon yellows, greens, blues, and pinks, would be a poor representation of my personality. I enjoy subdued, calming, “earthy” colors it is a true reflection of who I am. For instance I am constantly outdoors and my vacations usually are consumed of doing things outdoors whether it be camping, hiking, or kayaking. And I feel that the postcard is a clear reflection of that.

The font choices were difficult for me, I am picky with my fonts, as now looking back on the project, I’m sure there were other fonts that would have worked a lot better with this postcard. But nevertheless, I decided to go with s sans serif font for my larger words, like my name and my quote. By using the sans serif font for my larger words it makes it easy to read and initially reflects my laid back personality. Where as serif fonts tend to reflect a serious and more structured personality, which is why I used that for my body text. The appearance of using both types of serif fonts creates a balance between the two and clearly separates the main points from the body copy.

Lately I have been obsessed with the triangle shapes and clean lines. This is why I decided to create a graphic made of multiple triangles, and used both solid and dotted lines around the boarder of my postcard.

The image of the world inside the circle with a quote typed over top, reflects my desire to travel the world (wow, what a cliché), but really! It also reflects my desire for opportunity, knowledge, and understanding, through travelling we learn to understand more than just our own social norms. The image of myself that I used was taken in Colorado a year and a half ago, in the Garden of the Gods. In the photograph I am overlooking the entire city of Colorado Springs, I felt on top of the world (yes pun intended), and because that’s how I felt, I though that it was only appropriate to actually place this image of myself on top of the world.

As for my postcard pertaining to the design hierarchy, I believe that I fulfilled the creativity criteria by placing the image of the world into a text circle, and using my image over top as a metaphor for “being on top of the world”. I also think that the placement of my intertwined triangle graphic was placed appropriately, which created balance between each side of the postcard.  I also fulfilled the usability criteria. Although I feel it met creativity standards, I also feel that this was a simple enough layout that is forgiving and easy to design. I believe that I could have increased my level of proficiency, perhaps being slightly more detail oriented to reflect a level of higher proficiency and professionalism. Although I believe my postcard could also reflect a stable and consistent design, and it meets the basic needs of the project, I do not feel that the postcard was of low or little to no value.

This postcard is well balanced in terms of image and word placement. The size of the font types work cohesively together and do not over power one over the other. Through the body text is small, there is enough text so that it does not get lost behind the large text of my name and quote. 

Reflect Yourself Visually

GIVE THE EYE WHAT IT DESERVES: Beauty

This logo shows creativity, and proficiency. The use of colors prevents this logo from being bland and the lines that create the image are enticing. The sans serif font is easy to read and wraps neatly and attractively around the logo image.

The creative, stamp-like, or rather, Reese's cup shape of the outer edge of this logo immediately brings the mind to something sweet and delicious and triggering a "good memory" perhaps with the signature candy it resembles. The creativity used with the hand and the infinity symbol brings two unlikely objects together and creates a visually attractive image. The earth tone colors make it easy to look at, and flow cohesively together. The use of serif fonts are excellent, creating a bolder and stronger aspect to this logo, against all of its other subtle elements. This logo definitely fits into the usability criteria.

This logo is creatively beautiful. Rich and bold colors are soothing and appealing to the eye. Using the sun as the main bold color element emphasizes the "Sun" aspect in the company name. There are so many different ways to travel, and what makes this logo so creative is the use of an image of a man traveling by camel; a way of transportation that most people wouldn't ideally think of using. This logo is above well above functionality.

The Outdoor Adventure Club's clearly indicates the type of company they are, simply by only using mountains within their logo. It's not as creative as others, and could use a little work. Its definitely functional, simple, and attractive. Using white against navy works well, keeping an outdoorsy, earthy feel to the overall logo.

This logo is very creative, uses a lot of detail, and demonstrates high proficiency. Although the logo is designed mostly of simple lines, they are used so well to convey who they are as a company. The use of different fonts adds even more detail. This is a very well designed logo.

As for my logo...

I am very much inspired by the last logo of my logo-critique series. I am using simple lines which will add detail, as well as a sans serif font to keep cohesion among the use of the lines. I decided to go with a more outdoorsy feel because thats who I am, but I am incorporating that within my company, which is Graphic Design. I've illustrated the sun and the moon, showing that my company will work around the clock in order to get things done for our clients. I've used double mountains/triangles to signify that each piece of work is like climbing a mountain, there are many steps involved in order to achieve the success of the work.

Tri-fold it like its hot

Fonts speak louder than words...

>>>

After taking a look at this successful brochure series, the elements that stand out the most, thus what makes it successful, is a clean background, two colors, exciting and attractive font, graphics, and consistency. 

This designer used only two colors, those being black and white. For some, only using black and white could be boring, dull, and basic. But for others the use of simplicity, and a complete contrast color palette is attractive. These colors allow for the font and words to stand on their own, and to be visually clear. There is not a competition of color that would cause there to be clutter, rather two colors working cohesively together.

The use of repetition is clearly carried through out the entire brochure series. There is a continuous use of the same colors, and 1 or 2 fonts that are repeated several times that show repetition. One thing that was added to the rest of the series, that was now included on the cover brochure was his logo. However because he used his logo on all the rest of the series, while continuing to repeat the same fonts through out, it did not take away from the repetition because similar aspects were used again to keep the series relating.

The font types that were used through out this brochure series are strong. Beginning with the cover brochure, the use of lines, banners, and fill shapes, work so well with the text he used. Each of them being different but they work cohesively together, they are all pair well together like a fine wine and cheese. He was sure to keep most of the main word fonts a serif font. By doing this it visually attracts the eye and prevents it from becoming visually confusing and chaotic.

As far as the layout is concerned it is simple, and displays clean lines with easy to read text that has been carried from the cover brochure. There are no images within this brochure series rather, there are more lines, shapes, banners, and small graphics. This was a smart move when creating a self-promoting brochure because you do not want to use images of yourself, or use images to show your hobbies. The designer wanted to use graphics, fonts, lines and shapes, to display his creativity and reflect his personality through the outlet of design rather than images.

...But page sized photos take you where you want to go.

<<<

This brochure series is greatly successful because the designers use of images expands over the entire page allowing the reader to immediately understand what this brochure is about. The layout and format is clean and very organized, it is easy to read and understand, and there is very little to no clutter and unnecessary garbage added. This brochure allows the images and quick paragraphs speak for themselves.

Most of the images used within this brochure series seem to be taken at night or at sunset. There is an earth beach "summertime" feel to the images based off of the photography subject. The color tones in these photos match well, due to the style of the "spaces" photographed, and because of the time of day in which these photos were being taken. They give off a "clean" and "airy" feel, upon looking at them, and they create a desire within the reader, as in "oh, I'd love to live there", or "I'd love to vacation in that space". When that thought crosses the readers mind, the brochure is instantly a success. It gets the main point across, and it's clearly attractive, especially if the reader instantly has a desire to "live inside" the brochure.

The consistency and repetition within this series of brochures is evident. There are full page images on each page of each brochure and the font and font layout is either the same, or a relative of the ones contained on each page. The headline font is a serif font, which displays a strong pull toward the headline and the information below. The type font is a sans serif font. By using this font it displays an easy going, easy to read, and laid back tone toward the information within. Because of the images used, it is appropriate to use such a font to carry out the tone and compliment the design layout, and the content within. And the placement of the information boxes helps to create balance on each page of the brochure.

This brochure is easy to read and understand. The visuals and font are strong, but to do not take away from each other. 

***

Deforestation Posters Aren't Printed On Paper

The topic for this poster project is about deforestation and the effect that it has on our climate as well as the future of our world.

Due to the nature of this issue, it is considered both economic, political, as well as social. Deforestation is an issue that effects people in the areas of which this is happening, it effects our economy due to the use of trees as a resource for “everyday” use in society, and politically it effects the countries in which deforestation is happening; it effects each country’s economy and puts pressure on the specific government.

The client of this poster has taken the stance of being anti-deforestation, which opens up a lot of opportunity for this poster project as far as research and design are concerned.

Ten Adjectives to Describe This Topic:

-         - Rapid

-          -Massive

-          -Destructive

-          -Devastating

-          -Unwanted

-          -Deserted

-          -Stripped

-          -Unpleasant

-          -Homelessness

-          -Depletion

The Three Typefaces 

The three typfaces that I think would be appropriate and attractive for this poster would be, script fonts like ‘Yellowtail’, serif fonts like ‘Rockwell’ and ‘Arvo Coustard’, and possibly a display font like ‘Pinewood’. The mix between a script font and serif font would draw they eye in with a larger word being in the script font (which a lot of people are attracted to currently, and with the use of a strong/non-typical script font, it will entice and engage the reader), and then using the body text with a serif font to show that there is a serious tone to this poster message as well.

In-Your-Face

I’m currently conflicted about whether I would like to design a more serious poster having it be “loud” and “in-your-face”, and including a lot of raw detail about the effects of deforestation and how it is effecting our world, and why we need to care a little more, and also include tips of how to do your small part to help. I would want to take this angle with the poster because posters can be very effective if they display raw truth about something. Giving people information on something that they were not aware of, without sugarcoating it and making it all light and fluffy. If people see something bold and “in-their-face” about deforestation, maybe that would trigger something in them; seeing one raw true horrible fact about what deforestation, and what it’s doing to our world, could cause the reader to actually want to do something or, it could be something that they will carry with them and perhaps months or a year later, they will finally do something about it. But then there is the ladder where it could be too much for people to digest, and they could choose to ignore it because it’s so true that it’s scary (but we don’t like those people anyways).

Let There Be Light and Optimism

 However, there is the other side of my creative little mind that wants to do something that includes optimism and create a poster that is filled with warm and calming colors. Within this style poster I visualize both a pastel template and an earth tone template with one bold color of vibrancy. I feel that using the script font for one large word (not quite sure what that word is yet), and then surround the image, or using an image, or heck even creating an image that is filled with earth tones, or pastels, will create a visual that will be gentile to the eye and by the use of the script it will immediately draw the reader in (as I have stated before) and then again filling the body test with the serif font, or maybe fool around with a sans serif font (that I did not mention above) I feel like the font should reflect the colors, imagery, and tone of the poster. Sans serifs are again easier to read which makes it easier for the viewer to understand and perhaps feel the tone of the message being relayed. In this poster it will be easier to read and not as “in-your-face”. This approach could work because the reader may not know immediately what they are reading, so because of the soft approach, as they keep reading they will begin to see what this poster is really about. Due to a lot of the current “hipster”, “indie-folk” style trends there is an even larger audience for people to become intrigued to look at a poster with whimsical writing, earthy tones, and pictures or graphics of nature. I see this part of the poster almost looking like a vintage style poster for a national or state park. I want the tone of this poster to be optimistic and hopeful. I want the reader to walk away from the poster feeling more knowledgeable and feeling good, as if there is something that they can do to help prevent this from continuing, or taking a small step that they can take in their daily life that could even be a tiny help. 

The Good & The Bad - What Do Your Eyes Think?

Good Choices = Happy Eyes

This "Wanderlust Yoga Festival" poster, the use of color and images conveys the overall “feel” and “vibe” of the type of festival it will be and how the atmosphere will be. The earth tone colors gives off a comforting and calm appearance and the use of the mountains, trees and large cabin is aesthetically appealing to the eye, again creating a calming, earthy appearance which will appeal to the type of demographic this festival is intended for. They used a sans serif font for the body of the writing on the poster, which makes it easy to read when people are perhaps passing by the poster on the street. The headline is a serif font, which stands out and draws people in. toward the bottom of the poster you will see that there is a silhouette of a pine tree upside down over what looks like a slab of wood, which draws the eye down to where it lists the musicians and events that will take place at this event, and in turn also creates an abstract appearance that draws even more interest. The writing is not too close to the edges and instead is centered toward the center of the page which makes it easier to skim the poster rather than reading far left to far right over and over again.

The “Jo Jahre Haldern Pop Festival” poster immediately upon looking at it, it gives off a dark, spooky, dramatic feel. Most of the graphics and images are black, cream, and gray, except for the vibrant red apple. Without the pop of red color in this poster it would be easy to overlook or pass by. The imagery of the large apple and the person sitting on a slice of apple gives the poster more interest upon looking. The name of the festival is large and at the top and center of the poster, immediately notifying the reader what the poster is for. The last name, “Haldern” is the largest word on the poster indicating to the reader that the last name is well known rather than the full name of the person who the festival is named after. The wheat framing the name of the festival, as well as the wheat in the field which the apple is sitting on, is an early, country, western, touch which indicated the overall feel of the type of music being played at this festival. The use of cream color rather than paper white makes the poster easier to look at, instead of using two extreme opposite colors.

Mountains, stars, trees, and the moon, oh my! By looking at the “Firefly Music Festival” poster, the visuals and simplicity of the poster, makes the reader actually want to be there. It appears desirable. The large hot air balloon with vertical striped trails the eye both up to the sky to see the moon and the mountains, and down to the ground to dray the eye to the name or title of the festival. The tops of the mountains are sharply pointed which works well next to the vertical stripes on the hot air balloon, and it creates the illusion of the hot air balloon rising. The lower half of the poster is mostly all open green space and trees, which decreases any amount of clutter, thus sticking with a simplistic layout. The angling of the tree line to a vanishing point bring the eye in and back, so that all elements are pointing to each other. The use of the sans serif font allows the reader to see clear and understand immediately what the event is about. There are not too many words on the poster rather there are hardly any words on the poster except for the name of the festival.  

This poster immediately screams summertime. The creativity behind the word placement of “Hangout Music Festival” almost brings a little bit of humor to the poster. Imagery of the sunburned girl with tan lines of her bathing suit and name of music festival are relatable to most beach goers who stumble upon this poster. All of the colors that are used are “happy” colors, with the use of pink, yellow, cream, teal, and light blue, together they all resemble a summer time feel which vibrates a feel good tone. The words written on the bikini bottom is a creative way to display the music artists being featured. With the words getting smaller and smaller as you get to the bottom of the poster, it resembles a vanishing point which draws the eye down to read all of the artists. The font usage is not basic and simple, rather is it more of a fun serif font which, visually, will take the reader a little longer to read the poster, but partnered with the use of the colors it makes it easier for the viewer to read and comprehend, almost like they want to, or will enjoy reading the entire poster. The visual in front of the woman wearing the bikini resembles people cheering with their hands up in the air, which draws the eye up and balances out the poster, rather than weighing heavy at the bottom where all the words and information is.

These two posters are the exact same thing only with a different image as the background. Both of them are very appealing, almost as if the designer used a different image background that pertains to where the poster will be hung or perhaps if the music artist was playing at a different location or venue. The simple use of banners and shapes to display the information breaks up the poster into different parts, rather than spitting all the information together in one block. It aids the eye through the entire poster, from top to bottom. The white lettering and background of the shapes makes the poster look clean and simple to read and adjust the eye to. It’s almost exciting to look at due to the use of lines and shapes and different font sizes and the way the fonts are stacked. With the banners being placed on either side of the poster at different heights, and pointing in different directions, it does not give the illusion that the poster is object heavy on one side opposed to the other. The poster is equally weighted and the words do not run to the edge of the page, which creates an easy and attractive concert poster.

Bad Choices = Sad Eyes

“Haunt & Scenic Design”. To put it simply, this poster is a mess. It appears that the designer’s ideas were all over the place and had a difficult time creating something that would be comprehensible. For instance, there are so many different types of fonts being used, and with those many different fonts, there are also so many font colors and effects. The placement of the words is very poor, it appears that the designer placed the words wherever they saw any open space to do so. The color use is dark and the image used appears busy and so detailed that it is difficult to read the writing that is over top of it. There are several random images that either done seem to make sense to what the poster is about, or they are not cohesively placed. There are no clean lines or sensible lines that will lead the eye from one bit of information to another. Everything seems jumbled and it causes the eye to be all over the page and prevents the reader from being able to find something to focus on first.  There is no clear format of the poster what so ever and the font used is not easy to read at all, especially when the font is smaller, it appears blurry and scrunched together. Overall, this poster is awful!

Although this poster is not as busy as the ladder, it still has a poor format as far as word placing, font, color, and image use is concerned. To start, the words go to almost the edge of the page, which aesthetically is not appealing at all. The font usage is generic and almost child like in appearance. There seems to be three different fonts that were used which may be fine in some instances, however the fonts used for this poster are not appealing or attractive to the eye. At the very bottom of the page there is a font and a banner with colors that do not match anything in the poster and appears random. The rest of the font color is neon and bright, which can catch attention, but there are far better and cleaner ways to catch a reader’s attention. Without seeing the word “wrestling” the first thought the viewer would have, judging by the background image, would be that this poster is for a body building competition or something along the lines of that. The image usage is very poor and the designer could have used something more appealing and relevant to the event. Also the image seems a bit pixeley. Overall the look of this poster is very immature and appears almost like a middle school student could have created this.

The “Bling Event” poster seems to have some structure but its rather poor. First, all of the words go to the edge of the paper, and because there is so many words and information it instantly makes this poster overwhelming to look at. The thick black banner at the top of the page is an eye sore and almost looks to be yelling at the reader. There is a outer glow on all of the words, some thicker than others, as well as different sized fonts. The outer glow makes it difficult to read or skim through the poster and crates a busy effect around the information. The snowflakes at the top of the page are falling behind the wording also which makes it difficult to read the word “Bling”, which is written in a diamond effect font. Skimming down toward the middle and bottom of the poster, there is a thicker outer glow where it gives information about a “FREE engagement portrait session” and just below that there is no outer glow around the words that tell the important information like, the cost, location, time, name of facility, etc. All of the most important is overshadowed by all of the other random information surrounding it. The use of a light blue background and white outer glow on the fonts, and the white snowflakes makes everything look like it’s fading in together. The only things that seem to boldly stand out is the man’s tuxedo and the thick block banners with the sponsors names. The dancing man and woman graphic is confusing because at first glance it looks like a poster to a high school winter formal rather than a bridal showcase. However the only balance there is within this poster is the dancing couple and the snowflakes, and possibly the black banner at the very top and the banner of sponsors at the very bottom.

The “Activesg Launch & Open House 2014” poster at first glance looks like an art event rather than a “Floorball EXPO”, due to the graphic of the rainbow colored paint blotches and, rainbow colored stars.  The white lettering over the rainbow paint creates reading difficulty because the only thing separating the words from the paint, and the white background behind that, is the slight drop shadow behind the words. By looking at this poster it seems that it would instantly give the viewer “readers-anxiety” due to the busy nature of this poster. The white wording in the multi colored stars makes it difficult to read not only because the font is white, but it is small lettering too; in order to really read the words in the stars the reader has to squint or stare for a few moments. There are way too many colors happening on this page, including the color of the fonts. The use of outer glow, outline, and inner glow in all the words in lower half of the poster makes it extremely difficult to read. The only “easy-to-read” part of the poster is, nothing!  The logo or sponsor of the event is placed in the center of the poster, where it should really have been placed at the bottom of the poster. The poster hardly gives the vital information about the event and only focuses on the events that are happening, and the people who are sponsoring the event. This poster is busy, difficult to read, and does not provide any important information pertaining to the event.

At first glance of this poster, there couldn’t be one person that would think that this is for a mountain biking event. Immediately this poster looks like it could be for a little girl’s birthday party, or an advertisement for the Candy Land game. There are way too many colors happening on this poster, including the font. The colored outer glow on top of the colored font hurts the eyes rather than making it easy to read and understand. The use of visuals is extremely poor. The unicorns do not resemble anything having to do with mountain biking and almost makes this event look like a joke. This poster is hard to take seriously. The important information for this event is typed in bulky, thick, fat font and is colored dark purple that is angled on top of 3 different colors, which causes the eye to have to readjust every time the words are being read over a different color. The vertical rainbow colored lines as the background of the entire poster make it that more difficult to look at, aside from the rainbow colored unicorns and the angled multi colored fonts. Initially to the viewer of this poster, it would seem like it would be a struggle to look at, let alone read. This designer should be fired!