personal influences poster set
A collection of denotative, connotative, and exhibition posters based on topics, events, or beliefs that have inspired me. Created for UCSD's Design Communication class.
role:
project type:
duration:
deliverables:
graphic/visual design
individual, class project
10 weeks (sep. 2021 - dec. 2021)
connotative, denotative, & exhibition posters
exhibition poster
This is an exhibition poster for a fictional exhibition of my influences and my work. I created the black paint smears (actually, pointe-shoe prints) at the bottom of the poster by putting black acrylic paint on the platform of my pointe shoes and then performing a variation from the Swan Lake ballet on a piece of poster paper. The results were transferred afterward into a digital PNG. I sourced the image of the ballerina from the Internet, as well as the ripped paper texture. The typography was done in Adobe Illustrator, with the outlines of the letters and the ballerina's leg hand drawn. As my influences and artist statement emphasized my admiration for the sometimes painstaking process behind what we might superficially perceive as elegant, grandiose, or awe-inspiring, this poster captures the grace of a ballerina on the surface and then the details and pointe-shoe prints beneath the surface (or, in this case, the ripped paper).
connotative typography poster
Final iteration
First iteration
Created in Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, I focused on expressing the idea of elegance and confidence through this connotative typography poster.
For the first iteration (depicted to the right), I chose to use the Henry Didot typeface, as the contrast between its upstrokes/lighter strokes and its downstrokes/stems gave the center of the poster a sense of flair. During the critique session, one classmate shared that they found that the center typography gave them similar feelings as they would experience when listening to an orchestra.
In the second iteration (depicted to the left), I wanted to further explore that "orchestral" feeling conveyed through the typography. I chose the HTF Didot typeface for the word "elegance" due to its bolder strokes for better readability and Playfair Display for the rest. Capitalizing and overlapping certain letters in "elegance" was to give the poster a more formal, magazine-like feel than the first iteration gave off. I placed "soliloquy" within the "elegance" to hint at the process that is behind developing any achievement, elegance, or confidence, and finished off the poster with my signature to resemble an actor's autograph.
denotative typography poster
A modernist grid was applied to design this poster in Adobe InDesign, along with clear typographical hierarchy and a sans serif font to avoid connotation. The hierarchy can be divided into four main levels: the title, the name and main themes, the three acts, and then the body text in the lower right. Through an obvious separation of these sections using different font and sizing treatments, there is a clear path for the reader to follow. I chose to separate out the main three acts (that is, three main topics) from the rest of the body text so that readers may grasp the overarching ideas of the poster's information more easily. The denotative poster serves to provide info from my artist statement in an objective way, avoiding initiation of feeling or associated meaning.
