Introduction

For this task I chose to work on commercial graphic design everyday for seven days, with the goal of improving my skills through music centred poster designs. Each poster was completed within a 48 hour timeframe, after reviewing to a song, album or artist that inspired it. My goal for the week was to explore how I could improve my graphic design skills through combining seperate visual elements in order to create a single cohesive image while under a time constraint. By following this methodology of rapid poster design, I hope to create a feedback loop where I reflect after each design and apply my own feedback to inform the next design (Said-Metwaly et al., 2017).

Each poster will focus on

Focus: A specific song/album/artist
Observation: The final design and what worked/ didn't work

Day 1

day1 Focus

Concert poster inspired by 'I want things to be beautiful' by Devi McCallion Observations
Took inspiration from the original album artwork.
The silhouette is unclear and doesn't represent my original vision for this design.
Title font is default is stretched to fit the frame, and mask was apply to match figure on the left.
Subtext looks out of place and doesn't match the rest of the poster.

Day 2/3

Day2 Focus

Create a World Tour poster inspired by Stevie Wonder Observations
On the Second day I applied less pressure on myself to create something, considering how overwhelm impacted my creative process in the design of day 1
Used gradient tool to create custom background from scratch
Still used default text but played with effects to pixelate it, matching the aesthetic of the Stevie Wonder image.
Accidentally created a record-like shape in the background when playing around with shapes. It worked well layered under Stevie Wonder, directing visual interest to his face, providing a lighter contrast to the black and was consistent with the overall retro feel of the poster.

Day 4/5

day3 Focus

Create a Jamiroquai inspired Australia tour poster Observations
After adding the focal graphic figure, I started with some shape tool experimentation, creating the lines/rays coming out of the figures head, then the gradient tool was used to give the shape some movement. Although the lines are on the same layer the gradient provides depth.
The Main title font is still the default font because I struggled to find a font that I thought would work with this design.
Tour location and dates filled the empty space within the figure on the right side, filling the white space nicely by giving it function.
I felt at first the Jamiroquai logo was essential to the design but looking back it looks out of place compared to the rest of the design. Especially with the jarring contrast of the default font title.

Day 6

day4 Focus

Create a poster promoting a live television event for Steve Lacy's latest album release Observations
Wanted to incorporate colours and shapes from the original album art design
experimented with star shapes to fill empty space on the left side of the poster, I don’t think it really worked, as it does not serve a function other than to fill the empty space, perhaps a further toggle of the star-shape and placement would improve on this but i still like how it looks overall.
Default font was used again but this time I feel as if it matches the design and uniform of promotional television.

Day 7

day51 Focus

Create a poster promoting Sade love Deluxe album Observations
Being the last day of the task, I felt creatively drained making this poster.
Choosing to double up on the same image of Sade works well, I like how it creates emphasis on her recognisable figure and pulls the viewers interest between both the small and the larger figure.
I Created shading behind elements I wanted to draw attention to.
Played around with text effects again, this time creating something orginal from the default font.

Reflection

How did your creative process evolve over the week? The week started off rough, day 1’s design was disappointing. It didn't read clearly, the subtext felt out of place and I was putting too much pressure on myself to make something I liked. Learning from day 1, I decided I would let go of that pressure, which allowed me to experiment more with my designs (Kaufman & Gregoire, 2016). For day 2 I ended up creating a background from scratch and keeping my "mistake" (record shape that appeared from circles) because it fit well when positioned correctly with other elements. By day 4/5 I opened up more to using space more effectively through my layout, using tour dates to fill negative space within my design. This created a resourceful use of space within my design. Day 6 I pulled colours from the original album art in order to match the album art, tieing back to the original aesthetic. Going into day 7 I faced my issue of using the same font for every design and I instead used affects to create an original font design. The progression within this task was not linear but the constant reflection helped me to identify weak points within my designs, helping me to improve next time.

What skills were you trying to improve, and did you improve them? My goal for the week was to combine separate elements into one cohesive image while managing the pressure of a time limit. Early in the task, day 1's subtext didn't fit within the rest of the poster but an attempt was made to match the subject to the main title. By the mid way point of the week, I had developed my skills further, using dead space within my designs to represent two different things at once. By day 7 colour, shape and source material were all combine to create a cohesive design. On top of that, typography became a skill I improved without even realising, starting the week being frustrated by my font choices to ultimately treating font like the rest of my elements and manipulating it to match my design in order to get an original design.

What was the personal experience of creating repeatedly like? Progress was never linear throughout this experience, with day 1 being the hardest. I did not like my design at all and I had high expectations for myself to create something that I liked. Being mindful of putting too much pressure on a design instantly improved my process and end result. I was able to begin creating designs I was proud of. By the middle of the week I built somewhat of rhythm to my designs by utilising the same tools (gradient, shape, mask) it made me faster and instinctive to what I would like. By day 7 I was creatively exhausted from coming up with so many original design, but the repitiion of the week had built up enough to the point where I was able to visualise the entire design in my head without even opening my design program. This was something I have never experience as a designer before and I believe I have become a better design thanks to this task.

References

Kaufman, S. B., & Gregoire, C. (2016, January 20). Ten Habits of Highly Creative People. Greater Good. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/ten_habits_of_highly_creative_people

Said-Metwaly, S., Noortgate, W. Van den, & Kyndt, E. (2017). Approaches to measuring creativity: A systematic literature review. Creativity. Theories – Research - Applications, 4(2), 238–275. https://doi.org/10.1515/ctra-2017-0013