It seemed like I was constantly making mock-ups of posters last semester and the project I have to show you today is one of the reasons for that. Our second assignment in Visual Systems was to design a series of three posters for an exhibit at the Canadian Center for Architecture. We had to make posters for exhibits of the work of Richard Neutra, Louis Sullivan, and Frank Gehry, and we were given all the text. That posed a bit of a challenge since there wasn’t an equal amount of text on each poster but we still had to create a system that would make it clear that the three posters went together.
When it came to sketching out ideas, I first researched the three architects’ styles and their impact on architecture history. I discovered that Louis Sullivan is essentially the “father of modernism.” He designed many of the first high-rise buildings and also used massive arches in many of his designs. Richard Neutra’s designs were all very geometric, combining metal and stucco to make light, open spaces. Frank Gehry designs in a deconstructivist style, where the form can take more precedence than the function. After I felt like I had a good idea of the architects, I sketched out ideas that were inspired by the posters. I experimented with grids, but ultimately decided that I really wanted t o explore the possibilities of having a large letter to stand for each designer being the focus of each poster. I was inspired by many posters, especially this one:
I love having a large graphic element like that and the typography is handled and balanced beautifully. In my posters, it just so happened that the first letter of each of the architects’ last names mirrored their architecture style, so I decided to run with that when designing the main form of the poster.
