“Clarity” Reductionist Poster

A concrete poem poster design

Project Brief

Design Challenge: How could a single everyday object be used in a reductionist poster design?

This project involved reducing a physical object to flat duotone design. Only two colors could be used to distinguish the most important features of the object. Relevant text was to accompany the image.

Skills & Tools Used:

The Final Design

The final reductionist design of a light bulb with connected typography. The keyword ‘Clarity’ replaces the hanging lightbulb chain, and the poem itself fans out from the light source.

Redux Poster Design by Jacob McAdam
The final “Clarity” reductionist poster design.

The Design Process

After selecting the object, it had to be reduced. This was a process of photographing, editing, photo and tracing with the pen tool. The difficulty was knowing which details of the object were salient, and which could be left out. Keywords and color schemes were explored, to get a sense of relationship with the object. Once colors and text were developed enough multiple layouts were composited.

Clarity reductionist poster process ideation
A process of photographing, editing, and tracing the image of the lightbulb lead to the reduced image.
Clarity reductionist poster concept ideation
exploration of different words and lighting
Clarity reductionist poster concept ideation
exploration of different color schemes
Clarity reductionist poster concept ideation
exploration of working the poem into the design
Clarity reductionist poster concept ideation
exploration of various layout options
Clarity reductionist poster concept ideation
Design comprehensives pushed options for typesetting and negative space.

Conclusion

The design creates a conceptual juxtaposition of dark and light themes. The poem makes references to the darkness within people. This corresponds with shadows created by light sources.

This poster was designed for Graphic Design I course taught by Mimi Sheiner at SFSU (2017). The poem is written by auhsoJHaynes and published on HelloPoetry.com.

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