Graphic Designer Research

Beautiful Decay by Anita Suthayaly

This poster is conveying a social/political message about pollution in the environment. It was inspired by the words of an America politician, H. Ross Perot: "The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river". The message isn't immediately obvious and so forces the reader to look a little more deeply. In this pretty autumnal scene the river is polluted by heavy black type, alien to the scene. The word 'activist' stands boldly upright in the river, the colour of the type brightening as is ascends and the overlapping letters suggesting speed - implying activists can make a difference.

I like the strong design of this poster and can see the possibilities for a similar design in my own work on Dumfries and Galloway. In place of a political message perhaps sights and sounds could be conveyed in a brighter typeface tumbling through a river or landscape scene.

Red Light Winter by Darren Cox

This is another poster advertising a play being performed in New York. Cox designed 3 slightly different posters (only 2 shown here). The image uses very strong, heavy black, handwritten style letters as frames revealing the image underneath. This again makes the reader look a little deeper. The play is set in a deprived district of New York and this is also conveyed in the poster design - in such areas handwritten flyers are posted in great quantities wherever space allows.

Again I like this strong design and could perhaps use a similar design in my project. Below is a first attempt at trying this but it needs perhaps a broader letter style and a stronger image behind.