D&AD Poster Development

D&AD Poster Design

Below: A slideshow showing just some of my development process

in creating the promotional poster for the third D&AD Northern Lecture.

When initially presented with the brief, there where a few key concepts that stood out to me. I immediately considered the three most important aspects of the brief to be: the location in the North, the number twelve and the 'raffle' idea. So in order to create a successful, well rounded design I would have to combine these visuals into one bold design, typical of the D&AD visuals.

I knew the colour scheme would not have to be, but would look better if I just used black, yellow and perhaps splashes of white. So with this in mind I began to experiment with composition and scale. We were informed the poster could be a unique shape and did not have to stick to the rectangular template, however there is something I find comforting and fitting about the traditional rectangle. I also knew I wanted to create a portrait poster, rather than landscape, but that did not stop me experimenting either.

After much deliberation I settled on two designs that I felt best represented the brief. They both utilised the use of raffle ticket illustrations with a large scale depiction of the number twelve. I also managed to enforce the importance of this landmark occasion with the slogan 'twelve years. twelve projects. one story.' across the raffle tickets.

The two designs are similar in style, yet each one focuses on a different colour. The first is predominantly black with yellow as the secondary colour and white used for the small amount of text. The second design is almost reversed, with yellow as colour number one and black as colour number two. The only use of white is as an underline below the text.

Out of the two designs I'm still not sure which one I prefer. I think I will have to weigh up the pros and cons, and perhaps ask my peers for their opinions on legibility and the degree of successful communication.

There are still several other ideas that run round my head at this moment. For example instead of using the circle in design one I could perhaps use a square or a triangle, perhaps even some sort of burst. As for the second design I could have the tickets ascending across the page rather than descending. However I think I may stick to these designs for the time being, and only alter them if another idea presents itself to me and I feel it may work better. The use of the word 'twelve' instead of the physical number '12' is also a possibility. I may go on to produce some variations using this idea, and dependant on the success may use it as my third idea or replace one of my earlier designs.

Images: above; idea one, right; idea two