Digital Photography and Imaging & Illustration and Visual Narrative - Poster Design

4.11.2024 - 29.11.2024

Chan Zhi-Ren Zenndan 0369069

Digital Photography and Imaging & Illustration and Visual Narrative / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University

Week 7 - Week 10 / Project 2B: Poster Design

1. Project 2B Joint Assignment Brief

This project is a joint assignment of DPI and IVN. It includes designing a poster with tools and skills learned from both modules. Below is how the marks are calculated.

Illustration & Visual Narrative (IVN) - Illustrated Typography (20%)

IVN’s grading looks at a student’s technical ability, specifically how we incorporate foreground, midground, and background within the font. For example, it could add light and shadows to the depth and weight of the font. Materials such as 3D and clipping masks are highly encouraged to use.

The best way to create depth is through overlapping layers (intertwine).

  • Intertwine tool (Select parts > Object > Intertwine)
  • Add shadows (Select all > Expand multiple times)
    • In isolation mode, draw inside a selected part or add gradient to create depth
    • Add favourite gradient to swatches for efficiency

    • Use adjustment tools (multiply, shadow, etc) to create more depth

      • Duplicate selected layers for efficiency

  • Material (Effect > 3D and Materials > Materials)
    • Perspective, depth, and lighting can be altered here
      • Make sure the settings for the lighting is the same when exporting to Photoshop

Fig 1.1 Intertwining with adjustment tools (6/11/2024).

Digital Photography & Imaging (DPI) - Photography and Photoshop (30%)

DPI looks at the composition of photography elements in the design. We must take the poster’s picture ourselves, but we can incorporate external images into the design for tools like clipping masks.

We will also apply what we learnt from Photoshop in the past weeks. It could be using tools within adjustment layers to enhance the visual appeal of our selected photo.

Document 1.1 Module Information Booklet (6/11/2024).

<iframe src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cw29Fx-8pB75D9a1zoPghC3vE8DPIkoU/preview" width="640" height="480" allow="autoplay"></iframe>

2. Process

The first thing to do was to select an original self-taken photo. So, I browsed through my gallery and selected a picture I took back when I was in Italy in 2018.

Fig 2.1 Selected photo, shot on iPhone 6 (10/11/2024).

With a picture chosen, I had to brainstorm ideas for quotes on what the photo conveyed. The natural contrasts between bright and dark suggested themes of 'good days' and 'bad days.' With this in mind, and with many quotes to choose from, I decided on a quote by Mahatma Gandhi.

"In the midst of darkness, light persists."

                                    Mahatma Gandhi

Looking at the illustrating side, I figured I could and should incorporate a two-point perspective with a gradient applied to the quote.

But before I did any sketch, Mr. Fauzi instructed us to find references that could help us in our poster.

Fig 2.2 Poster references (10/11/2024).

Mr. Fauzi also wanted us to provide a summary of our design concept.

Fig 2.3 Summary of my design concept (10/11/2024).

With that, I made a very rough draft and sketched out what I had in mind.



Fig 2.4 Pen and digital sketch (15/11/2024).

I'm not the best artist, but I tried to convey dark and bright sides with the colours and typeface choice. So, with a sketch at hand, I put together a better poster with perspective and other effects I mentioned earlier.

The first thing I did was to apply a perspective grid and align it accordingly with the building.

Fig 2.5 Aligning 2-point perspective grid (15/11/2024).

Next, I hopped on DaFont to find a typeface that best represented the image and typography. I found HandVetica, which has the 'beat-up' and 'scratched' look I was searching for.

Fig 2.6 Choosing typefaces (15/11/2024).

After installing the typeface, I inserted the words individually and applied gradients to each word. I used a compound path for 'In the' to group them.

With that applied, I finished my first progress for the poster.

Fig 2.7 Progress #1 (15/11/2024).

After Progress #1, I decided to go further and incorporate weight into my poster's typography. Looking back at the materials I wrote earlier, I figured I could add shadows and 3D materials to the typography.

Fig 2.8 Timeline of font-weight adjustment (17/11/2024).

As shown above, I tried to make the typography look as realistic as can be. The list below shows what tools I used to incorporate weight.

  1. No tools

  2. Drop Shadow

  3. Drop Shadow, 3D & Materials (Carved Concrete)

  4. Drop Shadow, 3D & Materials (Carved Concrete), Texture (Mosaic Tiles)

  5. Drop Shadow, 3D & Materials (Carved Concrete), Texture (Mosaic Tiles), Drop Shadow

The reason for adding another Drop Shadow layer is to adjust to the strong lighting of the original image.

I applied these steps to each word and made minor adjustments where needed.

After a while, I managed to finish Progress #2.

Fig 2.9 Progress #2 (17/11/2024).

Returning to Mr. Fauzi's DPI section, he also tasked us to update our progress in our respective Google Slides.

Fig 2.10 DPI weekly progress check (17/11/2024).

After Progress #2, I went to Photoshop to see if the adjustment tools could further improve my poster.

I found that using the Brightness/Contrast tool and scaling the contrast up gives the poster a more 'natural' look, so I put the slider to about 35 to 40.



Fig 2.11 Before and after scaling up contrast (17/11/2024).

With that, I became satisfied with the poster and made it my final.

Fig 2.12 Final poster (17/11/2024).

3. Reflection

Creating this poster was an enjoyable experience, especially as it allowed me to pair photos I took myself with a quote that truly resonates with the image. This project was particularly meaningful as it reminded me of my childhood passion for photography. While designing and arranging the typography, I frequently revisited my notes from Mr. Hafiz (IVN), where he demonstrated techniques to add weight to typography, which made the process more efficient. I also referred to our weekly exercises to guide my work for the DPI (Mr. Fauzi) aspect. Overall, I aimed to incorporate IVN and DPI skills into the design and enjoyed working on them.

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