Project Goal: “Through a set of specific and systematic exercises, we will explore typographic variables in clarifying a message based on the content’s hierarchy.”
For Tuesday, we were expected to experiment with different methods of expressing hierarchy like strokeweight, line spacing, and horizontal shift. I was able to express the level of importance through these methods of visual communication.
Before I started the exercise, I did background research on the event. The Live Stream Irish Music Series is presented by the Pittsburgh Irish Festival and the Irish Design Center. It goal is to promote and support Irish culture as well as Irish musicians. This year the events are all on facebook live.
The website for the Pittsburgh Irish Festival is mainly consists of green, clovers, as well as old-timey fonts. From the branding of the festival, it follows a very familiar image related to Irish culture.
The Exercises
Strokeweight
I decided to bold certain things for each exercise such as either only the names of the event, event and time, or the main information/names. Out of the three iterations, the one on the right was the most effective because it categorized the information into main and sub-categories. By bolding only the event’s name and the name of the artists, it clearly organized the information by focusing on only the main events. The other iterations like bolding both the time and name of the artists made it confusing because it took up visual space and suggested they are the same level of importance when they are not.
Line Spacing
For the line spacing exercise, I thought the iteration with the spacing in between the different artists were the most effective(far right). This separated the information correlated to each artist event clearly and was able to section off related event information together. The line spacing for the other iterations were ineffective and overall just very confusing because it separated related information from each other.
Horizontal Flush 2
For this exercise, I played around with including a tab for the sub-information for each event. Out of all the iterations, the middle one is the most effective because it followed a system of indenting all sub information and leaving the main visual focus to the artist’s names and the event’s main name.
Horizontal Flush 3
For this exercise, I was able to indent multiple times for each line. The far left iteration was the most successful because it was able to separate the time from the event but also suggest to the viewer that the information was all related.
9/15/20 (in-class)
Today during class we talked about the iterations and why an example worked or not. I realized that I misinterpreted the order of the information incorrectly. I thought the time and date of an event came after the name of the artist but it was actually ordered so that it came before. Once I figured this out, my approach to the horizontal flush exercise completely changed.
Combining strokeweight and horizontal flushing
Combining stroke weight and horizontal flush, I indented the artist name twice after realizing that the date/time came before the artist name. I experimented with either bolding the date and time or the name of the event. Based off of the iterations, the iteration where I bolded the date/time is more effective because the one less indent applied on the dates implies that the information is more important thus correlating with the bolding visual effect.
Combining Strokeweight and Line Spacing
Just like the combination of strokeweight and horizontal flushing, this combination was also effective in suggesting the different hierarchy between the information. Out of these two iterations, the example where I bolded the date makes sense in terms of order but in terms of content I think the bolded names make more sense. I feel like the order of the information has a big contribution to the more effective hierarchy.
Out of the combinations, I think the date/time + artist name together on the same alignment is more effective than the indent between the two because it is visually less complicated. The bold with the indent would be too much for the viewer to take in at once. However, an indent between the main event information and the different events are needed to separate two sub categories.
9/15/20
To start the next exercises which is playing around with colors and the palette combinations, I ripped out swatches from a magazine to organize different color groups.
I took this color swatch spread and brought it to illustrator to translate the physical magazines into the digital realm.
Beginning Color Iterations
Part 2 of the assignment is to start off with a final solution to the previous four exercises and change the type color to visualize hierarchy. I chose to pick the solution that combines strokeweight and line spacing.
I also went on Coolors.co to generate color palettes that would be interesting to use. Out of the random color palettes that were shown, I realized that I stayed away from analogous color palettes because it tended to be more boring. Instead, I drew towards color combinations that were more dynamic and contrasting. Here are a few color palettes that I saved:
I think the challenge for my event is figuring out a way to visually portray and represent the Irish culture. Because the people’s perception of Irish culture is so heavily influenced in America, I think it would be difficult yet also rewarding to portray it in different way. Visual stereotypes like the color green, the clover logo, as well as the old style fonts are all embedded into our minds as the thing that represents Ireland. I desire to create a poster that captures the Irish culture in a beautiful, new, and honorable way.
Is the Pittsburgh Irish Festival founded by authentic Irish people,the American Irish, or the non-Irish?
How does this play into the role of branding of their event and how can I innovate new visual ideas?
How can I represent the event in a way that shows representation and does not feed stereotypes?
At least from my experience regarding the Irish culture in visual design, it was always portrayed in a “kiddie” way with the branding done for Lucky Charms Cereal and movies/shows about leprechauns. My goal for the color palette and the overall direction of my poster is to humanize Irish culture and capture its beauty.
For the iterations, I experimented with how color and strokeweight merge together and when hierarchy becomes too much. When the color and thick strokeweight was applied to the text, it became too heavy in that compared to the thin, black letters, it seemed out of place and not coherent with the rest of the letters.
The bolded letters next to the colored thin ones competed with each other. Because the two different visual elements were so close to each other it fought for the viewer’s attention.
However, the iteration on the far right was the most effective for me. While using bolded text and colors in separate sections, the overall information had dynamic and was pleasant for the viewer.
Scale
During class today, we were talking about how scale is used to draw the view in and reveal to them information sequentially. I learned that I don’t have to always make bold and emphasize the title of the event but maybe a different phrase that is engaging. I tried out different compositions and how all of them have a different effect on the path of the eye.
9/17/20
For Part 3 of this project, we are looking at images that can be included in our poster. I am hoping to find an image that will help represent the music artists and the type of music they make. All the artists listed in the posters play very active and lively music. I was expecting folk irish music but it is different from what I expected. The bands that are part of the poster looks like the following:
Rust Town Rounders
Screaming Orphans
Scythian
Enda Reilly
The Low Kings
Looking at the bands, I noticed a pattern and common theme. The bands were all very lively and less like traditional Irish music than I thought. More than a cultural event, it resembled more of an actual festival with a lot of lights and crowds of people.
Here were a few images I collected during class:
The Beginning Iterations
I explored a wide breadth of images, ranging from abstract to more literal. At the end of my search of images and playing with scale, I was debating between two images, one that is more abstract and one that was more literal.
After my meeting with Vicki, I decided to go with the image with the guitar and the grass because it seemed to be more intimate. The live stream event and the current state of the pandemic makes humans crave more intimate connections and with the live stream music event, I wanted to portray that form of intimacy. I started to play around with scale and composition, especially taking advantage of the position of the feet and the guitar. I wanted to align the text box with the artist names and dates with the vertical axes of the foot and also wanted to take advantage of the negative space.
Here are few of my iterations:
For the final poster, I placed the title of the event under the foot and the guitar because the direction the elements of the picture was pointing towards the bottom right corner. I played around with the scale of the title but after the final critique, I realized that my poster was too bottom-heavy. I made some adjustments after this critique, like also making the facebook link more accessible and easy to read.
Final Poster (after adjustments)
Final poster in context:
