cmw-designs

[cmw-designs]

Here is my Information Design for Advocacy poster:

IDA Rationale: For the Information Design for Advocacy poster, my topic was Girl’s Education. This topic is an important issue because in underdeveloped countries, education for girls is not considered important. Girls are expected to stay home and take care of the house and children. In underdeveloped countries they value boys receiving an education over girls which is not fair to the girls and can essentially alter their lives but also affect society. Allowing girls to receive a proper education can lead to them coming out of poverty, prevent child marriages, reduce child and infant mortality, push for equality, and eventually cause girls to become future leaders that will influence society for the better. My info graphic successfully advocates the topic of Girl’s Education and allows the reader to understand the importance of it. My overall type and image relationship successfully creates a legible, readable, and unified representation of my information. The type and image relationship in my poster allows my audience to want to read the information because of the light color palette, the illustrations, and the type I chose which is cursive. This gave my poster an overall graceful and calming appearance which allows my audience to want to read the information and learn more about my topic. If someone was passing by my poster the imagery alone would grab their attention. The simplicity of the linework of the woman in my poster gives the reader a sense of interest about what the information will say. My poster also causes someone to want to read it because it does not contain paragraphs of words. It is simple and has bullet points where necessary in order for the reader to retain the information quickly. All the points I make are concise and straight to the point. At first, the process of creating my poster was a little tough because I did not know what I wanted my topic to be on. I also struggled with trying to include enough information for the reader to learn something, but not too much where the reader would not want to read my information. However, once I decided on girl’s education as my topic and I started working on my illustration of the woman, the rest of the process went by smoothly. Although it was a long process, I feel like all the steps were necessary to help me design a poster that catches the attention of people and make them want to read it. The steps allowed me to stay organized and process my design effectively. The critique was especially helpful when it came to designing my poster. During critique I was able to get feedback that caused me to look at my poster differently and encouraged me to try different ways to organize my poster. Since I had been working on the poster for so long, it was good to get feedback from people who have not even seen it yet. After critique, I altered the placement of my type in a way that caused the reader to want to read it. I created my poster using Adobe Illustrator which I have used before, but I am still new to it. I struggled with the pen tool at first, but eventually I got the hang of it. Overall, I had a good experience with Adobe Illustrator and the project allowed me to feel more comfortable to use it in the future.

Work Cited:

Babbitt, Tulin. “The Importance of Girls' Education.” The World's Learning Company, 2 Mar. 2018, https://www.pearson.com/ped-blogs/pearsonstudents/2018/03/importance-girls-education.html.

“Facts & Figures.” UN Women, www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/commission-on-the-status-of-women-2012/facts-and-figures.

“Girls Education.” Justice Rising, https://www.justicerising.org/girls-education?gclid=CjwKCAiAm7OMBhAQEiwArvGi3IhOcnqs_Ja1qDreJcHR6cXVdfwP

Girls’ Education – the Facts - UNESCO. en.unesco.org/gem-report/sites/default/files/Girls_fact_sheet.pdf. ZRT34AH9Fo9G2OMbi4DZeg9xuxoCFf4QAvD_BwE.

“Girls' Education: Facts and How to Help.” World Vision Canada, https://www.worldvision.ca/stories/education/girls-education-facts-and-how-to-help.

“Girls' Education.” Theirworld, Theirworld, 23 Aug. 2021, https://theirworld.org/explainers/girls-education.

“Girls' Education: 4 Ways It Can Change the World: Concern Worldwide Us.” Concern

Gulledge, Jacqueline. “How to Help Educate Girls around the World.” CNN, Cable News Network, 6 Oct. 2016, www.cnn.com/2016/09/28/world/iyw-girl-up-michelle-obama-girls-education-how-to-help/index.html.

Worldwide, https://www.concernusa.org/story/girls-education/?utm_source=grgs&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=gsgr-donations&utm_content=v3&utm_term=girls-education&c_src=grgs-cpc&c_src2=gsgr-donations-girls-education-

[cmw-designs]

Here is my Contraception and Beyond Guerrilla Campaign:

Contraception and Beyond Brochure:

Contraception and Beyond Poster:

Contraception and Beyond Mockups

GAC Rationale:

For the Guerilla Advocacy Campaign, my topic is contraception access. Contraception access is an important topic because birth control is a human right that every woman deserves. With woman being directly affected by this issue, having access to contraceptives should be getting easier not becoming more difficult. Increasing access to contraceptives for women will lead to a decline in pregnancy and abortion rates, decrease in discomfort of menstrual periods, and reduce the risk of gynecologic disorders. Making contraception more accessible also leads women to becoming more successful since they can usually pursue an education longer than most women that have unintended pregnancies and allow them to enter the labor force more quickly. Using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign, I implemented my plan of action for the Guerilla Advocacy Campaign. The campaign materials I used to advertise my topic were a brochure, a poster, a t-shirt, a tote bag, and a mug with the logo I designed on it. The materials that contain the most information is my brochure and poster because it allows my audience to learn more about my topic because of the amount of space it allows for info graphics. My issue needs advocacy because not many people understand the importance of contraception and the negative impact it can have if it is not made easily accessible for women. I created a system for my audience to get involved through my usage of the t-shirt, mug, and tote bag. On each material I have my logo which is an illustration of an IUD implant, one of the many forms of contraception, and the letters “C” and “B” on each side of it. The “C” and “B” represent the name of the campaign which is Contraception and Beyond. I chose this title because it lets my audience know that there is more to contraception than just stopping a woman from having a child. My brochure and poster also allowed an opportunity for my audience to get involved. Through the QR code I generated and the links I included which led to different websites with more information and organizations that support this topic allowed my audience to participate in this campaign. I think visually, my overall color scheme and graphics allowed me to complete the task at hand. All my graphics incorporated some form of contraception in it so that someone that may not know what the campaign is about, could get an idea of what the topic may be because of my graphics. My color scheme included different shades of pink, grey, and cream. I chose these colors because pink is often associated with women and using that allows my audience to connect with the overall idea of my campaign. I then chose to use grey and cream as more of background colors to balance out the bright pink colors I used throughout my campaign materials. My visual identity system created a cohesive voice for access contraception through my implementation of the title and logo throughout all my campaign materials. It allowed the audience to connect each material to one another and helped get an overall understanding of the campaign and the material it is trying to advocate for. My overall process was quite difficult. I initially had many different ideas, but when it came to designing it, I struggled with keeping the overall campaign simple. I would over think my designs which caused me to spend more time on trying to figure out what I am going to put on the canvas rather than spending time on the actual designs. What I had trouble with the most was the brochure. When it came time to designing it, I was having a hard time with the placement of my text and placement of the graphics. I wanted to put on enough information for my audience to be able to take away from this campaign, but I did not want to put too much information whereas the audience would not want to read it. However, once I had designed my logo and came up with my title, the process became much easier especially the mockups of the t-shirt, mug, and tote bag. As a creator, although it was a tough process it forced me to learn how to use InDesign and pushed me to learn

new things about Photoshop and Illustrator even though I have used them before. I do think my campaign was successful and I am most proud of my poster. When I was creating the birth control packet on my poster, I was concerned my audience would not be able to understand what it was supposed to be. Once I finished it, I think it came out nicely and I was proud of myself for creating things I did not think I was capable of.

Work Cited:

“Access to Contraception.” ACOG, https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-opinion/articles/2015/01/access-to-contraception.

Bernstein, Anna, and Kelly Jones. “The Economic Effects of Contraceptive Access: A Review of the Evidence.” IWPR, 10 Aug. 2020, https://iwpr.org/iwpr-issues/reproductive-health/the-economic-effects-of-contraceptive-access-a-review-of-the-evidence/.

“Contraception & Family Planning.” Pathfinder International, https://www.pathfinder.org/focus-areas/contraception-familyplanning/utm_medium=grant&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=XX&utm_content=&utm_term=&gclid=Cj0KCQiAK2MBhCARIsAMtLKRt5fapGeK32NfIKVWEvkcOiSgetBJ4BXBlId2ZiZsiL05kEnUoiOYoaAuKZEALw_wcB.

“Contraceptive Use in the United States by Demographics.” Guttmacher Institute, 28 May 2021, https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/contraceptive-use-united-states.

“Expanding Access to Contraception.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 1 June 2015, https://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/family_planning/mec5th-edition/en/.

“FastStats - Contraceptive Use.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 10 Nov. 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/contraceptive.htm.

“Introduction.” Ensuring Human Rights in the Provision of Contraceptive Information and Services: Guidance and Recommendations., U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1 Jan. 1970, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK195056/.

Johnston, Emily M., and Brigette Courtot. “An Uncertain Future for Access to Birth Control in the United States.” Urban Institute, 8 Feb. 2017, https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/uncertain-future-access-birth-control-united-states.

Katy B. Kozhimannil, PhD. “Removing Barriers to Contraceptive Access.” AJMC, AJMC, 30 July 2020, https://www.ajmc.com/view/removing-barriers-to-contraceptive-access.

“Women's Health Issue: Birth Control & Contraceptives.” NWLC,https://nwlc.org/issue/birth-control/.

[cmw-designs]

Here is my process blog for the Information Design for Advocacy poster:

Moodboard, Style Tile, and Sketches-

Research with Work Cited-

Topic: Girl’s Education

Who is impacted?

Young girls in developing and underdeveloped countries.

Statistics:

• According to UNFPA, one in every 3 girls in developing countries is married before the age of 18.

• When 10% more girls in a given country attend school, that country’s gross domestic product increases by an average of 3%.

• According to the World Bank, a girl who completes primary school is three times less likely to contract HIV.

• According to UNESCO, a single year of school can increase a woman’s wages by 20%.

• In South and West Asia, 80% of out-of-school girls are unlikely ever to start school, compared to just 16% of boys.

Where is this relevant?

This is relevant in countries like Liberia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, and other developing countries.

Important facts:

• Four countries in sub-Saharan Africa prohibit girls from going back to school after pregnancy

• One of the main barriers to a girl’s education is a lack of sanitation facilities for menstrual hygiene management

• Educated women are more likely to work and even own their own businesses.

• Girls have the right same right to education as boys.

• Some countries lose more than $1 billion a year by failing to educate girls to the same level as boys.

• There are often legal, religious, and traditional practices that discriminate against girls

having the chance to get an education.

• With an education, girls will understand their rights, have a greater sense what is needed to support health and wellbeing.

What actions need to be taken?

• Girl’s living in poverty needs to be encouraged to go to school instead of working.

• Child labor needs to be put to an end.

• Parents need to give these girls the opportunity to get an education instead of having them tend to the home.

• There needs to be an increase in sanitation and hygiene facilities.

• Parents need to stop pushing their children at young ages.

• Childcare and school programs need to be implemented.

How can people help? Who can help?

Everyone can help with girl’s education. People can donate to organizations that build schools in underdeveloped countries, parents should encourage their child to go to school, and teachers should be sharing their time with both girls and boys and should not show favoritism.

Works Cited

Babbitt, Tulin. “The Importance of Girls' Education.” The World's Learning Company, 2 Mar. 2018, https://www.pearson.com/pedblogs/pearsonstudents/2018/03/importance-girls-education.html.

“Girls Education.” Justice Rising, https://www.justicerising.org/girlseducationgclid=CjwKCAiAm7OMBhAQEiwArvGi3IhOcnqs_Ja1qDreJcHR6cXVdfwPZRT34AH9Fo9G2OMbi4DZeg9xuxoCFf4QAvD_BwE.

“Girls' Education.” Theirworld, Theirworld, 23 Aug. 2021, https://theirworld.org/explainers/girls-education.

“Girls' Education: 4 Ways It Can Change the World: Concern Worldwide Us.” Concern Worldwide, https://www.concernusa.org/story/girlseducation/utm_source=grgs&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=gsgrdonations&utm_content=v3&utm_term=girlseducation&c_src=grgscpc&c_src2=gsgrdonationsgirlseducationv3&gclid=CjwKCAiAm7OMBhAQEiwArvGi3DxZm0h82OoJGsu9m_ae1M7cniZFnqnIqjBywQ_sxwTV64o64PVdmxoCQocQAvD_BwE.

“Girls' Education: Facts and How to Help.” World Vision Canada, https://www.worldvision.ca/stories/education/girls-education-facts-and-how-to-help.

“The Importance of Girls Education.” Our Little Roses, 10 Mar. 2021, https://www.ourlittleroses.org/blog/importance-of-girls-education/.

“Why Girls' Education?” Commit2Change, https://www.commit2change.org/girlseducationgclid=CjwKCAiAm7OMBhAQEiwArvGi3PDJdwV9CmKdkGw5YAMrL7BVLgqhwWuPfwkL-0che1f_zbLIoeUPBoCDBIQAvD_BwE.

Design Brief-

For the Information Design for Advocacy poster, the topic I will be advocating for is girls’ education. My target audience are 18+ adults because it is important for anyone that is old enough to understand the importance of girls’ education and how it is affecting girls in underdeveloped countries. My topic is an important issue because in underdeveloped countries, education for girls is not considered important. Girls are expected to stay home, raise the children, cook, and clean. In underdeveloped countries they value boys receiving an education over girls which is not fair to the girls and can essentially alter their lives but also affect society. Allowing girls to receive a proper education can lead to them breaking free from poverty, prevent child marriages, reduce child and infant mortality, push for equality, and eventually cause girls to become future leaders that will influence society for the better. The type of information that I will be including is why girls’ education is such an important topic, the negative effects of girls not receiving an education, how we can help advocate for this cause, and how girls’ education will change the future. For my design plan, I plan to use bright colors such as purple, pink, orange, and turquoise to immediately grab the viewer’s attention. In my poster I want make sure the viewer understands the overall message. Some graphics I was thinking about were illustrations of women with different occupations, graphics of girls in school, statistics about girls’ education in underdeveloped countries, and maps of the countries that are affected by this. For the typography, I was thinking about using the Chalkboard typeface for one of the titles to tie in with the education topic. I also wanted to use other typefaces that are more relaxed and are more inviting such as Segoe Print Sub and HP Simplified. For my overall poster look, I want it to have the elements of a classroom in order to get the message across.

[cmw-designs]

Here is my process blog for the Guerrilla Advocacy Campaign:

Research with Work Cited-

Topic: Increase access to contraceptives

Who is impacted?

Women are being impacted by the lack of access to contraceptives.

Statistics:

• 14% of women aged 15-49 are currently using the pill.

• 308,000 women die each year from pregnancy related causes in developing countries.

• 46 million U.S. women aged 15–49 in 2018 were sexually active and not seeking to become pregnant.

• 99% of US women who have been sexually active report having used some form of contraception.

• Currently 49% of pregnancies are unintended.

• Sexually active couples who do not use any method of contraception have approximately an 85% chance of experiencing a pregnancy over the course of a year.

Where is this relevant?

This is relevant in the United States.

Important facts:

• Contraception reduces the global maternal mortality rate

• Women must have access to reproductive healthcare

• Unintended pregnancy and abortion rates are higher in the United States than in most other developed countries

• The cost of unintended pregnancy is the woman having an unplanned pregnancy, abortion, or adoption

• Having affordable access to contraceptives will reduce healthcare costs

• Improving access to consistent and affordable contraceptives will help reduce abortion rates

• Young women’s access to the pill improved higher education rates.

• Defunding Planned Parenthood could lead to immediate reductions in access to reproductive health services, including affordable health services, for millions of insured and uninsured women.

What actions need to be taken?

• Sexually active individuals need to educate themselves on safe sex.

• Medicaid expansion so that low-income women can afford contraceptives.

• All contraceptive methods should be covered by insurance.

• Individuals need to be educated by doctors on how to properly use

contraceptives.

• Funding for research

How can people help? Who can help?

Everyone can help increase access to contraceptives. People can help by donating to organizations that advocate for this cause and go vote when its elections. Helping can even be as simple as educating yourself on contraceptives and visiting your doctor.

Works Cited

“Access to Contraception.” ACOG, https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-opinion/articles/2015/01/access-to-contraception.

Bernstein, Anna, and Kelly Jones. “The Economic Effects of Contraceptive Access: A Review of the Evidence.” IWPR, 10 Aug. 2020, https://iwpr.org/iwpr-issues/reproductive-health/the-economic-effects-of-contraceptive-access-a-review-of-the-evidence/.

“Contraception & Family Planning.” Pathfinder International, https://www.pathfinder.org/focus-areas/contraception-familyplanning/utm_medium=grant&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=XX&utm_content=&utm_term=&gclid=Cj0KCQiAK2MBhCARIsAMtLKRt5fapGeK32NfIKVWEvkcOiSgetBJ4BXBlId2ZiZsiL05kEnUoiOYoaAuKZEALw_wcB.

“Contraceptive Use in the United States by Demographics.” Guttmacher Institute, 28 May 2021, https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/contraceptive-use-unitedstates.

“Expanding Access to Contraception.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 1 June 2015, https://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/family_planning/mec5th-edition/en/.

Project Proposal-

For the Guerilla Advocacy Campaign, my topic is Contraception Access. Contraception Access is important enough to have an advocacy campaign because birth control is a human right. Women are affected by this issue and having access to contraceptives should be getting easier not more difficult. Increasing access to contraceptives for women will lead to a decline in pregnancy and abortion rates, decrease in discomfort of menstrual periods, and reduce the risk of gynecologic disorders. Making contraception more accessible also leads women to be more successful due to the fact they were able to pursue an education longer than most women that have unintended pregnancies and allow them to enter the labor force more quickly. People can help support the cause by donating to organizations that advocate for access to contraception, voting during election time, and even just educating themself on the topic and attending their annual doctor visits. The information that I found that I would like to present is first the fact that access to contraception is a human right. This will show how important the topic is. Along with that I will present information that will discuss why contraception access is becoming an issue, the types of contraceptives available to women, what actions need to be taken, and how people can get involved. I will accomplish the task of creating a call-to-action campaign for contraception access by creating a trifold brochure, a poster, a mug, a tote bag, and a t-shirt. I will be using bright colors, a slogan, and a unique logo to attract the attention of the audience. The colors I will be using are pink based with a light blue and a deep blue. I am still working on the slogan, but I want it to be simple and clever. For the logo I was thinking about doing an illustration of a birth control pill or possibly another form of contraception. As a takeaway issue, I will have a donation option along with a hotline number that can be called. I plan on visually presenting this by placing the hotline number and the website where you can donate on the bottom of the poster and brochure. The hotline number will be a generic 1-800 number. On the back of the t-shirt towards the top, I am placing the hotline number large enough to see from far away and the logo will be placed on the front of the shirt most likely in the top right corner. On the mug and tote bag, the hotline number will be placed under the logo which will be in large in the middle of each material. My design tactic is to use bright colors mostly different shades and tints of pink in order to catch the attention of people especially women. I will be using illustrator to create my designs, mostly using the pen tool. I plan on creating a cohesive look and brand by making a logo and slogan that will be the exact same on each of the materials. For my visual vocabulary, I will be focused on a strong, positive, modern, content filled poster.

Moodboard & Style Tile-

Brochure, Poster, and Iconography Wireframes-

[cmw-designs]

For my Human Rights poster I chose Article 18 which is “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.” I believe that my poster does successfully advocate Article 18. My poster shows a variety of people with different genders and races. On each person I placed a symbol on them which expresses their religion. I believe the way I created my poster expresses inclusion of all beliefs and religions. My overall type and image relationship successfully created a legible, readable, and unified representation of Article 18. I even added a statistic on the bottom of my poster to create a stronger relationship with the type and image. In my poster, I utilized universal symbols of religions so that non-English speakers would be able to understand it. When creating my poster, my process was a little scattered because I was overthinking the assignment and the poster I was originally going to do. So I simplified my poster and used the pen tool to create each person. I then made each person different races and different religions to make my poster easy to read. I definitely think doing some research helped a lot with my process especially looking at similar posters. It helped me organize the layout of my poster and helped me finalize my decision to place the religion symbols on each person. Doing research also helped me realize how important the use of color would be for poster. It helped show individuality and inclusion at the same time. During both critiques I received feedback that helped me change my design for the better. During the sketch critique the feedback I received was to simplify my poster and make it easier for people to understand. It caused me to change my article and I ended up choosing the one I finalized. During the progress critique I received a lot of feedback on the placement of my type and the scale of it. Some of my words were too big or there was difficulty reading some of the words because of it clashing with the background. I took all the feedback into consideration and adjusted my poster by emphasizing my statistic, making “Article 18” smaller, and making the Universal Declaration for Human Rights symbol smaller. This allowed my type to look less crowded and easier to read. Overall, I think my poster clearly illustrates Article 18.

[cmw-designs]

For my typography postcard, my typographer was Paul Renner. After designing this postcard, I am very happy with the final product. I think it is just enough information for the reader to understand and it has a simple yet intricate design. I am really proud of how well the color scheme came together. I was trying to make a decision between a blue background with black font or just using two shades of blue. I think the two different shades of blue allowed the postcard to be unified. When creating my postcard, I think using Renner’s font, Futura, for most of the words really helped connect him to this piece. The perspective warp helped me execute my ideas for most of this project. It allowed me to place the words on Renner’s face based on how I wanted the perspective to look. I definitely think I grew as a designer during this project. I had to challenge myself and do something that is not too simple. Doing the words on Renner’s face was something I’ve never tried before and I think it ended up being really interesting. What I learned technically was how to use the clipping mask tool and it was helpful when creating my stamp. What I learned conceptually was how to organize my canvas in a way that is not too crowded, but in a way the reader can easily understand.

Work Cited

Germany Map in English, www.geneseo.edu/~german/germany-map-english.html.

Lulu. “German Eagle Postmark Stamp Postmark, Stamp Clipart, Germany, Seal PNG Transparent Clipart Image and PSD File for Free Download.” Pngtree, pngtree.com/freepng/german-eagle-postmark-stamp-postmark_4999582.html.

“Paul Renner.” Font Slate - Paul Renner: Modernist Type Designer., fontslate.info/designers/paul_renner.html.

[cmw-designs]

For my reproduction of Paula Scher’s, The Diva is Dismissed, I did have some challenges trying to recreate this poster. My biggest challenge was the photo of the woman in the background. It was difficult for me to recreate the hair style of the original photo and it was hard finding the correct filter for it. Another one of my challenges was the letters. Scher created her own font for this poster so it was hard having to recreate it because I had to used different fonts for certain letters and alter every letter I used. My techniques differed from the original work because I did not have control over the mediums Scher used. My font is different because she created her own, my filter of the image is different because I could not get the same as the original artwork. Working digitally did change the aesthetic of the work because I am still learning photoshop and it was hard trying to learn the tools and recreate it at the same time, so both pictures have different aesthetics. In the original work, I found the woman the most interesting. This is because she is the main focus of the piece. Her picture evokes an emotion that grabs people’s attention and the blue tint of the picture allows the image to pop due to the yellow background. One of the things I would have done differently was taking more time to work on the image and the filter. The filter I used compared to the original artwork is completely different from my reproduction and I wanted to get something closer to that. I also would have worked on my fonts for the words. The fonts were somewhat similar but if I had more time I would have tried to get it as close as possible.

[cmw-designs]

For the Typography Postcard Exercise, I studied Paul Renner who was a German graphic designer, typographer, and type designer in the 20th century. Renner was born on August 9, 1878 in Wernigerode, Germany. He accepted the position of the head at the Printing Trade School in Münich in 1926 and then eventually became director of the Master School for Germany’s Printers. In the 1920s, the Bauhaus movement emerged and Renner supported its principles. Although he was not directly associated with the Bauhaus moment, its influence led him to design the Futura typeface in 1927. Renner traditionally created the Futura typeface which includes, "low crossbar, pointed apex, ascenders that rise above the ascender line, mono-weight strokes, crossbars that have an extended width, circular counter-space, center of the letters that extend to the baseline, and terminals that cut-off" (Harrop 2015). Because of its modern look, Futura became the most popular typeface in the 20th century. Renner passed away on April 25, 1956 in Hödingen, Germany and he was only 78. Although he was not that old, Renner was still able to leave a legacy behind. He published his book, Die Kunst der Typographie (The Art of Typography), in 1939 which impacted future graphic designers and typographers. "Futura was the first typeface of its time to combine geometric and old style figures into one face" (Harrop 2015). When Paul Renner designed the Futura typeface, he created a milestone that influenced many modern typeface designs.

Work Cited

“Futura: A History of the Worlds Most Loved Geometric Typeface.” H.GREEN-COURSE HUB, https://www.green-coursehub.com/research-blog/futura-a-history-of-the-worlds-most-loved-geometric-typeface.

“Paul Renner (1878-1956).” Paul Renner, https://www2.palomar.edu/users/gkelley/PaulRenner.html.

Paul Renner, https://people.ku.edu/~delange/paulrenner.html.

“Paul Renner.” Progettisti e Affini, 20 Apr. 2020, https://progettistiaffini.it/en/paul-renner/.

“Paul Renner: Biography, Designs and Facts.” Famous Graphic Designers, https://www.famousgraphicdesigners.org/paul-renner.

[cmw-designs]

For my Found Objects assignment, I chose to use coffee grinds to spell out the word “energy”. The way I constructed my piece impacted my overall message. I had to properly clean the letters so that the message was clear to see through the coffee grinds and I had to make sure my letters looked effortless like cursive. Even when it came to photographing my found objects, I had to make sure the picture I was taking was a good angle that would properly showcase my found object. Using coffee grinds allowed me to have flexible lettering which allowed me to write in cursive. The cursive writing also embodies the “energy” with the way the writing showed how easy the words flowed. I did not relate my assignment to anything I read, however, my object influenced my style by allowing movement with ease as I wrote my words in it. I really enjoyed this assignment because I liked having to find objects that I could use to create a word that described the object itself. The process of the assignment was easy and simple enough to follow. Overall, I enjoyed the creative process of this assignment and the final product.

[cmw-designs]

For the reproduction project, I will be re-creating Paul Scher's "The Diva is Dismissed" poster.

"The Diva is Dismissed" poster was created by Paula Scher in 1994. It is an art poster created to advertise this play so that more people would come. The content being showcased is the head of a female placed in the middle of a yellow canvas which allows this to be the focal point of the poster. The only colors used in this is blue and yellow which are on opposite sides of the color wheel, allowing the head and the words stand out. The words coming out of the mouth makes it appear as if the female is shouting them out of her mouth. The bold colors and bold lettering allows it stand out from simple posters usually created at that time and causes visual impact. It brings the design movement of constructivism which is influenced by both Cubism and Futurism. The poster was created using lithographic printing process. This included using a photograph, placing it on the lithographic stone along with the stenciled letters, inking the stone, and finish using the printing press.

Work Cited

Carson, Nick. “15 Influential Art and Design Movements You Should Know.” Creative Bloq, Creative Bloq, 10 Apr. 2019, https://www.creativebloq.com/inspiration/15-influential-art-and-design-movements-you-should-know/2.

“Paula SCHER. the Diva Is DISMISSED. 1994: MOMA.” The Museum of Modern Art, https://www.moma.org/collection/works/8837.

“Paula Scher.” Pentagram, https://www.pentagram.com/about/paula-scher.

“Poster, the Diva Is DISMISSED, 1994.” Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18654247/.

[cmw-designs]

Part One:

The letter "G" is has a nice curve to it that resembles to the letter "C", but also has that line in the middle which enables the two to be distinguished. I was stuck between the two, but I chose the letter "G" because it gave my character than just a curved line. I flipped the "G" upside down so that I could create a strong figure/ground relationship. This exercise allowed me to see letters in a different way. It helped me understand that letters could be seen as objects or even an image.

Part Two:

For this portion of the assignment, I played with different letters together and ended up liking the letters "J" and "S". The letters are not significant to me personally, but I liked how they went together and have similar curve to them. The placement of the letters allow them to appear to being jumping out of the page giving them a distinct figure/ground relationship. What I learned about the composition and alignment in this exercise was that the letters do not always have to be centered and symmetrical. I liked being able move around the shape without distorting the shape. This exercise definitely opened up my mind to how to creatively arrange different forms. I realized even objects like letters can create a completely different image from what it originally looked like without changing its original shape.

Part Three:

My typographic treatment expresses my word "Loud" by having the words in all caps and filling the page. I created it this way to describe how loudness is bold and in your face, so I think the placement of these letters helped describe that. I made the size of the letters large to put more emphasis on the word and used pink as the color so that there could be a distinction between the word and the background. This exercise challenged me by forcing me to think outside of the box and use the placement and composition of words to describe its meaning.

Part 4:

When creating this hierarchy, font style was important to me because I wanted my font to be professional, but still fun. I made sure I space out the words enough so that everything was not grouped together and the reader would be able to understand it. I aligned all my words so that the reader does not get too distracted but all the information. I used this color scheme to bring the hierarchy together and make it cohesive. I put important information on it so that I could be easily contacted, but did not overshare by adding something like my address.

[cmw-designs]

For my first sketch, I was thinking about having a bowl of milk and I would use letter shaped cereal to spell “Good Morning”. In the background I would possibly have a bottle of orange juice, pancake mix, and two eggs in order to set the scene. For my second sketch, I wanted to use red solo cups to spell out “Cheers”. I would have the cups facing down so the red can be seen in the photo. For my third sketch, I wanted to use coffee beans and have them spilling on the counter. In the middle I would use a stencil to spell “energy”. In the background I would have a cup of coffee and a bottle of creamer.

[cmw-designs]

The first image above is my Photoshop Exercise and a new tool I found helpful was the lasso tool because it helped me select certain parts of the MetroCard and alter the color of the parts I selected. The second image, below, is my Clipping Mask Exercise which is of the New York abbreviation with a graffiti background. As you can see, I chose to focus on a New York City theme for both assignments. An aspect of Photoshop I am interested in growing skills in is becoming more efficient with the tools and learning how to use them effectively. The biggest obstacle I may face with this software is the magnetic lasso tool because of the lack of control I had when using it. I plan to practice using it more so that I can become more comfortable using it and eventually overcome this issue.

[cmw-designs]

About Me!

Hi, my name is Christina Wilson and I am currently a junior at SUNY Brockport. I am majoring in Business Administration and Marketing with a concentration in Management and minoring in Graphic Design.

Here, I attached one of my artworks that I created using Adobe Illustrator: