Core Concepts- Exercise 5: Too much or not enough information
Exercise 5: Too much or not enough information
Posters generally, have an image and one main line of text, most often the title, followed by additional essential information. Look around locally and identify a coming event – it could be a jumble sale, a local gig, concert or play, an exhibition or sporting fixture – and design two posters to promote it. Make the first poster full of details and descriptions about the event, when and where it’s taking place, what’s going on, how long it lasts, how much it costs and what to expect. Include all the details that you think your audience might need. For the second poster apply Occam’s Razor to pare back the information to a bare minimum – be extreme: how little information can you get away with and how few words can you use? Challenge yourself to be as simple as possible, but don’t forget the essentials or the poster won’t do the job it is intended for.
I decided to collect the information I would need for the poster. I then thought of the most important parts to include for the second poster after applying Occam’s Razor. I went to Birmingham Hippodrome’s website which provided the information clearly. I felt like I needed to research some more posters for some layout inspiration and created another mood board for reference. I’m a big fan of Van Gogh and began to scan in/search for some photos of his art work. I then went onto creating some initial ideas.
When coming up with ideas I was trying to aim to capture the “rawness” of Van Gogh’s work, and incorporate it with the typography and information needed in the poster. I decided I wanted to go for a handmade style approach. I began with creating my own paper textures by wetting paper scrunching it in different places and then putting it onto an old baking tray for a black background so it’s easier to cut out in Photoshop later. I tried this with a few pieces of paper so I could test which I liked in Photoshop once they were cut out.
I began by annotating the brief, and thinking of events to produce a poster for. We are currently coming in and out of lockdowns during the covid-19 virus it seems, so many planned events have been cancelled. Just before this lockdown I went to the Van Gogh live exhibition in Birmingham, I think that this would be a good idea to create a poster for. I also thought to produce a poster for an online concert that have started happening, artists go live to their audience and make music or sing at home. I feel like an exhibition will be more of a challenge and would like to give it a go. I created a mood board of posters and other art, new and old collated from screenshots on my phone, Pinterest and Instagram.
Occam’s Razor:
Before producing any work I felt like I needed to understand Occam’s Razor, and the ideas origins, I read an article by Brian Duignan, a senior editor at Encyclopaedia about the theory and Ockham himself.
Occam’s razor is also known as the law of economy or law of parsimony. It was originally stated by philosopher William of Ockham in the 1300s. “The principle gives precedence to simplicity: of two competing theories, the simpler explanation of an entity is to be preferred. The principle is also expressed as ‘Entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity.’”
“On the one hand, with his passion for logic he insisted on evaluations that are severely rational, on distinctions between the necessary and the incidental and differentiation between evidence and degrees of probability—an insistence that places great trust in man’s natural reason and his human nature. On the other hand, as a theologian he referred to the primary importance of the God of the creed whose omnipotence determines the gratuitous salvation of men; God’s saving action consists of giving without any obligation and is already profusely demonstrated in the creation of nature.”
This was my favourite paper style. I warped it slightly in Photoshop to exaggerate it’s look.
I was deliberating between a yellow or a blue poster background. Both colours I felt were prominent in Van Gogh’s work. I decided that the yellow looked better and has a brighter feel, it is also the colour I think people associate with Van Gogh.
I then decided to test out various font types that I had collected from previous tasks and personal projects. I wanted a clean, professional looking font for the information, and a more interesting stylistic font for the poster title.
I decided to use one of Van Gogh’s most known portraits as the main focus point of the poster, it is an image everyone knows and will be drawn towards. I tested with its original colouring and black and white, but felt that the black and white version appeared better on top of the yellow background. I wanted it to appear to be collaged and cut out of another piece of paper, so placed it on top of a white piece of paper and cut around it digitally. I had decided on my font to use for the information (Warownia) I feel like this is a good bold font that looks modern and works well for a poster. I applied my mixture of fonts as the title, and then went onto testing compositions.
I intended on this poster seeming ‘raw’ and handmade, so I decided to print out the type and photo, and then cut/rip around them. I scanned them in and laid them out in my preferred composition. The image didn’t look good to me, the composition didn’t seem right and there also wasn’t enough information about the event. I went back reprinted more information and tried again with a more clean method of cutting out the text. This time I also distressed the text slightly by using a rubber and a craft knife, to give it a more handmade feel.
I also felt that the background needed more, it looked too plain and uninteresting. I decided to make some paint markings by splatting/brushing/printing to later test out. I also thought that to go with the crumpled poster look, some tape could work well to ‘stick’ the poster up. I went onto testing with a new composition, and included some tape in different places to see which worked best. Then I overlaid the paint textures and rotated/warped them until one worked well.
Final:
Overall I feel like the design works ok, it doesn’t look as well or is as affective as I wanted it to be, but I look forward to improving my skills with further projects. I tested further with the pain layer and placed it on top/underneath some of the text and image in order to bring the piece together and make it appear as ‘one.’ I added a texture on top of the whole image including some grain, and then layered another version of the paper background on top and changed the blend mode/adjusted it so the text ‘moves’ with the paper more.
Next I needed to apply Occam’s Razor. I needed to work out what the most important information is to show and still convey the same message. Which parts were needed so the viewer still understands what the event is about? I decided that the essential information was the title, the image, the date, the location and the price.
Occam’s Razor Final:
I do like this version of the poster, I like the space and the more simple style. I feel like you still need more information for an event like this, but this poster could work to gain peoples attention so they would find out more. I feel like information wise the poster ended up being quite minimal even before applying Occam’s Razor theory, maybe I just prefer a more minimal look. I was able to make the image of Van Gogh and the text larger on this version which I prefer. I look forward to asking for feedback to see where I can improve/which other people prefer.
I then asked for feedback via the Graphic Design google groups conversation. The various feedback I received was:
“I like the low fi look, the poster with more info allows the audience to understand what the event is about. It’s eye catching and clear. I would say the type seems very close to the border could you allow more space around the edges?”
“I think you are visually tapping into the 70's/80's collective consciousness of punk rock with the cut up typography and yellow background and scruffy paper. I was convinced Van Gogh Alive was a punk rock band until I read the poster with more information. Unless I've completely misunderstood what this is I would say that visually you need to tap into Van Gogh and Multi-sensory. For me that is lots of colours (Van Gogh hues), suggestion of movement maybe (like the eddy's in his paintings) and other things that bring Van Gogh and multi-senses to mind.”
“It's an interesting point John made about using lots of colours to tap into what Van Goth means to him. I initially liked the yellow you used as it brought back Van Goth's well known piece 'The Sunflowers' to me. I think with any creative piece personal opinions and choices will always come into play.”
I found the feedback interesting and decided to change the size/composition of my final pieces, to leave more negative space. Aware of time, I wanted to recreate another version of this poster and ask for more feedback as I wasn’t entirely happy, but decided to move on with this idea and image.
Final: After feedback
I agreed that the poster with more information allowed the viewer to understand more what it was about. I tested with removing parts such as the logos and one of the quotes, but this seemed to take away from the overall look and information gained from the poster. I am really glad that the size of the text/image was mentioned to me via feedback as I feel the slight changes makes it look so much better and clearer. Occam’s Razor will be something I will always consider when producing work in the future, it helps remove elements that you don’t need and focus on the visuals/key information.
