Poster Designs

(Click on any design to enlarge)

I started experimenting in photoshop to create different backgrounds for my poster designs. As Wes Wilson did with text, I took the concept of wanting to manipulate my background so that it was melting and creating an illusion to the viewer of my design.

 

To achieve this effect I created a new layer in photoshop and filled it with any colour using the paint bucket.

I then created a gradient overlay. I selected the gradient to modify it and created a noise gradient. I clicked on randomize until I was happy with the colour scheme. I then clicked ok and closed the window. To complete the background I double clicked on the new layer and selected merge down. I then went to filter and added a 'radial blur'. I then cotinued to experiment with the amount of radius the blur would be and this is the effect that I achieved. I will now experiment with different colour schemes using the same method. 

 I then continued to experiment with the amount of 'radial blur' that I applied to the image. 

I then moved onto using a different method. I started off in a new document and again creating a new layer and filling it with any colour with the paint bucket. Instead this time I added a pattern overlay and selected the 'nebula pattern'. I then double clicked on the image layer and chose merge down. I then went fo filter, stylize, glowing edges. I then went to filter, liquify and changed the settings in the tool options.

 

I like this effect and think it reflects the 60s psychedelic era. However for a poster background it is too busy and would distract the reader from the message in the text. It would also make the text unclear to read.  

 These backgrounds are well developed and achieve the effect of visually tripping out, however when moving them to different media types it would be very distracting from the promotional literature in my designs on other media types. My first poster design was not successful because as I inititally thought the background was too busy because the texture distracts the viewers interest away from what the text is saying. According to design theory the balance of this design is not successfull. I wanted the text to dominate the posters because in my moodboard some of the poster designs focused mainly on the text. However the text appeared in straight lines and therefore this design was not very effective.

 To improve the above design I experimented with the warp tool in illustrator which improved the design and gave it a more psychedelic feel to it. Although this design was still not successful because the balance of the warp on the text was not quite right.

 This poster design was simple but effective and focused on the manipulation of text using the envelope distort tool. This poster design is also good because as well as having the dates of the festival it includes an idea of the line up for the audience of the festival.
Hippies were associated with driving VWs. To manipulate this image I have applied a yellow and purple gradient map to create the effect of two contrasting colours just as the posters in my moodboard have done.

 

I then experimented with the colour scheme of red and blue however this was not as successful as the purple and yellow one because the VW was not as bold as the other manipulation.

 

 I then created a QR code which also includes the festival's logo. This will be included on both my poster and stickers designs because it would generate more traffic to the festival's website.

The above design showed potential because it also included the dates of the festival as well as a taster of the line up. I also tried to dominate my design with text just as Wes Wilson and Bill Graham do in the images in my mood board. One aspect of this design which doesn't work is that the image looks too solid and seperate from the rest of the design and so I tried to feather the edges but it still made the design look poor because of the different blocks of elements.

The design with the purple background wasn't very successful because the hippy van image looked too much of a solid block from the rest of the design. As a result I preferred the design with the yellow background and to develop this further I then experimented with the envelope distortion tool and warped the text.

This above design shows potential to be my final design because the composition is well balanced with the image and amount of text. It needs to be adjusted slightly because the right hand side has a thinner purple border than the left hand side.

Wes Wilson influenced the colour scheme of the above design. I like this design because is simple but has also revealed more information about the theme of the festival through incorporating words associated with the 60s era.

The colour scheme of this design as well of the bold flower patterns is effective in this design. I created them by inserting a polygon and selecting effect, distort and transform, then pucker and bloat and selected the percentage which was most effective. To create the centre of the flower I simply used the ellipse tool and filled it with a contrasting colour. This design is not as effective as I hoped it would be because it contains too much negative space which should be filled up to create a successful psychedelic style.