Type Foundry Poster

International Day of Indigenous People

Design

When approaching the poster design, I started by considering colour templates. My intention was to use four main colours in equal measure, all of which will be “earth-tones”, i.e. shifted towards the red/orange side of the spectrum. My reasoning is that these colours augur feelings of natural dyes and traditional clothing.

The imagery is meant to be secondary to the type elements of the poster, and therefore should be highly abstracted and avoid overt representations of objects or scenes. Much of the existing promotional material for the Indigenous Peoples Day feature photographs of actual indigenous people dressed in traditional garb. My goal is to represent the idea of these groups without representing any specific group or individual. This is an international day of awareness which should not be limited to any one region.

My imagery for the background is largely abstract, but also representational of the plight of the indigenous. Using only simple polygons, I have set up a representation of ships on a horizon approaching a land mass filled with inhabitants. The idea is to emphasize the event which began centuries of inhumanity. The imagery represents a fairly heavy historical subject, but it does so in simple forms and bright colours with the idea that it should be accepted and recognized.

The typeface I have chosen is Rockwell. This is a slab serif font which has a few variations in its family. In my research I found much of the existing material about the Indigenous Peoples Day uses somewhat childish typefaces which are meant to appear rustic and hand rendered. I wanted to use something more serious but also not stodgy and business-centric. Rockwell is reminiscent of university display type, which should be recognizable by the target demographic. Heavy slab serifs are often used in the logotype and iconography of colleges and universities, especially regarding athletics. Rockwell’s slabs serve to add dynamism to the simpler letters, such as the capital “I”. Since the main title “International Day of Indigenous People” features two of them prominently, I felt Rockwell served this application well.

Production

Creating this poster required a mix of digital and analogue tools. Beginning with the classic methods, I created several grid layouts for the design in pencil on tracing paper. I then moved to the computer and wrote out the name of the day and the type foundry in Rockwell.  I printed out these words and began tracing them in various ways to arrive at a good type cluster. Working with negative space and overlapping letters, I developed a custom logotype identifier for the company MotoType.

Once I had a solid arrangement for the title and the logotype, I moved on to develop the background imagery in coloured pencil. I made several versions on paper and overlaid the type elements and grid on separate pages of tracing paper. Once I was happy with the layouts, I moved back to the computer and began vectorizing what I had sketched out.

After further critiques I had filtered my options down to the very best arrangement. I then did further research on the topic of Indigenous People and produced a paragraph of summary information and found an appropriate quote to feature prominently on the page. I typeset everything to my liking in Illustrator. I then placed all the type clusters and the logotype onto a single letter size page and printed this out. I cut out each type cluster and taped them to a poster sized page in the arrangement I felt worked best. I then overlaid another sheet of tracing paper and used coloured pencils to approximate the background imagery. I laid out my final grid pattern on a third sheet and arranged all three into one full size poster mock-up.

After receiving a final critique of my arrangement, I then moved back to the computer and began building the whole poster together in Illustrator. Once it is completed, I will be printing it out at 10” by 15” and adhering it to a mounting board.

Review

This project is demanding in its limitations. There is the actual day of awareness, the target demographic, the fictitious type foundry, and a limited selection of typefaces to choose from. Attempting to push the design towards any one of these priorities will inevitably cause it to fall short of the other three. This a design balancing act which has challenged us to satisfy a variety of somewhat nebulous requirements. How does one represent a social cause without using representational images? What is the corporate identity of a type foundry that does not exist?

I found this project difficult for these reasons and more. It appears the most successful designs all featured similar layouts – large central title rotated about 30 degrees with the date overlaid perpendicularly. I found these designs compelling, although my particular day benefitted more from a historic and classical approach rather than an art-deco or modernist approach.

I was unable to render the background entirely abstract. I felt that featuring the oversimplified polygonal shapes were abstract enough, but also indicated a familiar narrative. It was my understanding that my target demographic would respond well to this overt symbolism.

Overall, my final poster satisfies every requirement and demonstrates my knowledge of typesetting and hierarchy.