Banner & Poster Design

I took photos around the Art department, mainly of the painted walls that had been done recently done by students, including myself, making the walls look bright, colourful, eye catching and expressive.

An edited version of a picture, I
increased the brightness and contrast

I took quite a few photos inside the art department of the walls and certain angles, and outside the art department of the flowers, reflections, buildings, plant life, certain angles etc. I then moved the photos I would possibly use from the cameras memory card onto the Mac, I picked out some images and edited them in photoshop, mainly adjusting the brightness and contrast to make the colours stand out and 'pop', sometimes inverting them.

An original picture from the camera of a wall
with splattered acrylic

An edited version of the picture, the brightness
and contrast being adjusted

The inverted version of the picture with the
improved brightness and contrast

An edited version of a picture I took of
people in the hallway when painting the walls.

I then opened up illustrator to start making banner designs, the ideal kind of design to have was to have one of the banners using a picture from the camera, then the other being of text, object and or blocks of colour. I first started making a design with unedited version of the photos from the camera, using colours from the photo and putting them on the other banner on squares and rectangles.
I then started trying making designs with edited versions of the photos, but I was still having difficulty making a good design that I was happy and confident with, they were just looking boring and almost childish in design. I tried to get past this 'block' in my design I was having trouble with my adding filters onto some photos, though this still wasn't helping that much to give me better ideas.

My first attempt at making a design with an
unedited photo, and as shown it's not that eyecatching.

A different design I tried doing with an inverted
version of a photo, but the left banner design still
looks childish but also something that's quite overused

A edited version of a photo, as usual the brightness
and contrast was adjusted to help make the
colours 'pop'

A filtered version of the photo, a polterize
filter, giving a cool look and effect

I tried to try different designs for the banners, using a technique from a classmate by putting lines making the shapes of triangles above the pictures I'm using, I first made the lines with the line tool and coloured them with either yellow or blue, then putting an original coloured photo and inverted version of it underneath this design and then using the eraser tool, I erased the parts of the photos that weren't underneath the line design. I thought it was going to turn out quite good and work out, but it resulted in a weird and not that much of an impressive design, with the other banner not looking impressive either. I then tried to use a hexagon design some classmate had used in their design, though when I tried to use it in my own kind of design I just couldn't get it to work in a design. I then tried doing the technique I saw in my research with one banner being of the logo and the other an image with some text, I tried this but I still thought it wasn't looking that good or eye catching.

The technique I used to
make the line filled design,

The design I did with the lines next to the other
banner design, not looking that impressive.

The banner design with the hexagon design on one
of them, still failing to look impressive or good
to me.

My design technique with the logo on one banner
and an image on the other one with some text, I think
it's a good technique but I'm unsure it would work for
what these banners would be used for

Since I was having trouble with making some actual good designs with this 'creative block' I had, I paused with doing my work and looked at my research I had done, but I still wasn't getting anything, so I then I began to look around at other students work, seeing different kinds of designs that actually looked good and some even professional. By looking at some other peoples designs, I actually come up with some ideas, inspired by some of my class mates work, I didn't 'copy' from their designs, but used some techniques they used, included faded pictures and lines going over it.

I started by doing a poster, first putting down the text for Art & Design on a white circle with an edited picture background and then an inverted version of it, then adding on some white lines and 'paths'. Becoming more confident with how my designs were looking, I developed them further by adding in low opacity squares over parts of the design and then finding a space to put the NNC logo, which I place in the bottom right of the poster. I was liking how the poster was looking, but I decided to develop it more by having both of the edited photo and inverted version of it together in the design, so I had the original coloured photo underneath the inverted photo of it, using the eraser tool on the inverted photo in the spaces between the lines so the original photo would show, I then did the same thing the other way round.

The first design I was actual happy and
confident with and developed it further

I added in low opacity squares and put them
in the corners of the poster design along with
the NNC logo 

An inverted version of the design which I
think looks better than using the original
colored photo in the background

The inverted version with the low opacity squares
in the corners of the poster with the NNC logo

The design where I added both the original
coloured photo and the inverted version,
along with an added line path in the middle

I changed the text font to try and make it fit
in better with the design, mainly to fill in
the space around it

Satisfied with how the poster turned out, I moved back to making a banner design, which I would like its design to link to the poster design, so white lines/shapes, shapes with low opacity, using the same original and or inverted photo for the background etc. I tried making a design that has circles instead along with white lines, it looked okay but it didn't match with the poster that I wanted to have it linked and look alike to, so I used the same design with the white lines and paths along with a white stretched circle. Once I had made this design I was actually quite happy with how it was looking, though it only used the inverted background, it still fit and linked with the design.

Another design I made but also had difficulty
developing it further to look better

I tried to use a different kind of design using
linking colours and circles, but it didn't fit the
level of being eye catching like the poster does

The banner design that starts to look the part and
linked to the posters design while having a
 professional look to it

I changed the font to being more bold to
stand out, so when seen from far away on a
banner it would be able to be read

Confident and pleased with the successful designs I had made so far, I then moved onto making a leaflet design, that would still be linked to the banner and poster designs, so ideally look alike photos to the others I had used in my other designs. I did find a look alike photo to use, so I edited them in photoshop, adjusting the brightness, contrast and then inverting it, I then started making the design for the leaflet version, using the same white lines/paths, having the inverted version in one design in between the spaces of the lines and then the original photo. I decided to add in some more lines/another path in the middle of the designs which I think made it look a bit better and did the inverted photo as the main background then the original as the main background. This time I added some white squares to fill in the corner spaces, which is where I placed the NNC logo on a top left and the address and phone number of the college in the bottom right.

The first design I did for the poster, showing I had a good idea
of what I wanted to have in it and shows how I linked it to the
banner and poster design.

The design with an added in path/lines in the middle of the
leaflet, making it actually look a bit better

The design with an inverted version, both seemingly looking
quite good to use

Happy with how my first group of successful designs turned out, I wanted to do another different design for a poster, leaflet and banners but still had difficulty developing any others further. The successful group of designs is what I'll be using, this including inverted versions of some of the designs because I believe they look just as good as the 'original' design.