February 2010 Archives
Unite (sketched globe one): With this poster I'm trying to convey that communication is important across cultures because it shows love and brings people together. I wanted to have a playful, elementary feel to it because it is a simple concept.
Diversity (bird one): I decided to use birds in this design because they are a universally positive animal. I decided to color the birds in different colors and have them all moving differently (not all facing the same way) because it shows diversity.
I found this poster on the UNESCO website. It is a runner up for the 'Languages Matter' competition. This poster says that it is based off of the Language Family Tree graphic and reflects some of the Millennium Development Goals and Education For All Goals. This piece definitely does reflect the 'family tree' aspect. It also looks like it has a retro style, which might make a reference to the Partridge Family (a family and bird reference).
Here is the link to the poster:
http://www.design21sdn.com/competitions/17/entries/4401/gallery
I found it amazing how early tromp l`oil started (a.k.a. fooling the eye), dating back all the way to at least the Renaissance era when artists would paint insects over their portrait or other piece of artwork and tricking the audience into thinking it was real. In the graphic design age, it seems too easy with all of the technology to make a piece that 'fools the eye'. To me, it loses a bit of its value because of its easy access, even though there are many creative ways to play around with the idea. I definitely agree with the last statement of the article that states that design is largely a playful activity, and that when the audience falls for a design that is very intriguing and tricks the eye, it helps them pay attention to the message.
I actually found this poster on the Icograda website. This is a French Canadian poster advertising an event that was about the importance of dancing wherever you can in an urban environment. It's hard for me to point out why this is not an American poster, but one thing that stands out to me is the big clock- I know there are cities in the U.S. that have large clocks as decoration but it's not a major piece of architecture like it is in a lot of European countries.
There is something going on in almost every inch of the poster, but at the bottom left there is a nice chunk of negative space that lets your eye rest. There is a lot of black in it, but it does not seem overly done because of the very light background.This poster is definitely trying to be fun and witty because of the idea it is expressing (to promote more dancing in urban areas), and I believe it does a great job of showing this. The design has a cartoonish appeal and the little people dancing around the town get straight to the aim of the poster.
Here is the poster:
http://www.icograda.org/feature/galleria/galleria393.htm
It was a little difficult for me to follow this article because there was so much information packed into it, but at the same time it was very interesting. In the article it states that Iran does not cherish a 'unified culture'- some parts are rural, whereas other parts are more city-like. This reminds me of the U.S. The U.S. is so diverse with it's inner cities, suburbs, rural areas, and wilderness that sometimes I'm sure it's difficult for graphic designers to capture a wide audience. I also agree that sometimes graphic designers have the power to make things look more important than other things, solely by designing it to look that way (like the newspaper advertisement example). To me, the most important concept to get out of this article is that communication has two parts, and that graphic design should convey these parts and bring them together as closely as possible: 1. Information/the message, and 2. The audience
I really like this poster because it's simple, yet colorful and very clean looking. This type of poster could work in many situations because it's very neutral in terms of it's style and colors.
http://www.forgegfx.com/printd/poster2.png
It's interesting that a lot of designers can actually do some really good work by having a limited sum of money to work with. Maybe it's because they can narrow down their choices of things to do, therefore narrowing their focus. I really like the fact that some organizations had to re-use their posters...it reflects on the idea of charities reusing things, such as clothes. "The charity appeal can only work if the message is as simple as possible." I definitely agree with this, in that charities are, in fact, simple. They don't have a lot of money to work with. You would want a poster to reflect upon this statement.
