Visual Hierarchy
September 7th
It took me a bit of time to complete this because despite having very strict constraints, I still had to carefully consider what would be the best/most effective text to emphasize or group. In most cases, I would emphasize the event and dates, and group the author and book together. I feel that the dates are important to emphasize because they are far apart, so it’d be easier to forget those dates. The author and books are probably the most important, since they are what attract people to the event.
September 13th
In class I didn’t get much feedback. Vicki gave a comment that the hyphens in “FIVE EVENINGS” might not be necessary; and that when you have a color background, white text is a good idea for that contrast, and to possibly add a third color to emphasize one element. Additionally, text on its side acts as a wall and stops the flow of what you’re reading. I’m not sure yet whether to change that element since I do think that since you read “Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures” down to up, after that your eyes would be led to the events. On that same poster, I think I should make the scale of text more radical so you have something that really catches your attention from afar.
The images I chose were too obvious… I had the Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures logo, and two images related to books. As I look through stock photos, it’s hard to find images that aren’t too obvious but related enough to literature that it makes sense. In this case I think finding an illustration or creating my own would be the best course of action. I’m thinking of having an illustration (or mix of photography and illustration?) that’s more on the playful side to contrast with what I would regard as a more serious event. It’s unfortunate that the events won’t start until September 20th.
September 15th
Though someone reading a book is fairly obvious and directly tied to my subject, I thought the black and white vintage quality added a quirkiness that I don’t mind; plus I was excited to add graphic elements to make it more visually appealing and to match my poster.
I went through a lot of different versions for this photo. I unfortunately didn’t screenshot them all; they were all fairly similar to these two versions though. I adjusted my color palette to make the yellow-green and light blue “punchier” so it’d really stand out against the teal background. Similar reason for why “Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures, etc…” is in yellow-green; makes it stand out more and connects with the image.
Some text changed: changed the sideways text so that it wouldn’t act as a “wall” and stop leading your eye around the page; made “Five Evenings Virtual Lectures” bigger to have a more drastic difference in scale, and so that it’d be big enough to really capture your attention from far away. Took away indents in main events so that it’d align more neatly and not distract from other design decisions. Events text now aligned to the left side to accommodate for the image, made more sense than having it on the right and image on the left because of how the girl is facing left. I think I’m going to leave the image in my layout because otherwise the white space seems too empty.
September 16th
What is most important?… Since I now only have “Five Evenings” as the biggest text, the dates feel less necessary… I felt like having the dates first connected the best with “Five Evenings,” but people are more interested in the books and authors than the date.
In short, some major changes I made were mainly in the text; I tightened up on the leading between the lines of text, and I took the text out of the top left corner. I made “Five Evenings” sit on two lines, which allows for room for the woman to nestle in that space. I added the yellow rectangle under the text in the upper right corner to bring some more yellow in the composition and bring your eye to that text so it doesn’t get ignored. The woman and illustrations are bigger and seem more proportionally even with the text “Five Evenings.” I added what credits I could find in 5pt text under “Five Evenings,” but it kind of bothers me how it’s still a little too noticeable.
September 21st
