Rock Star Supply Co: Poster and Ticket Draft 1

For this next project, we were challenged to create a series of work that promotes a concert organized by Macalester students and sponsored by Rock Star Supply Co., a non-profit organization that recruits volunteers to aid teachers and tutor students in Saint Paul schools. Ange assigned us into groups of three or four. Each group was given the responsibility of inventing a name for the concert and designing a poster, palm card, website landing page, and a fourth medium of choice around our theme. My fantastic group members include Ryan Weber, Katie Lindgren, and Becka Galarowicz. At this stage in the project, our group chose to divide and conquer. Ryan and I volunteered to tackle the poster and Becka and Katie began working on the website. Ryan also designed the palm card and I created the ticket. The first draft of the poster Ryan and I collaborated on is shown to the left and my first attempt at the ticket is shown below. Following our critique in class tomorrow, we plan on working together more as a group to finalize the pieces. 

The Macalester students requested a design that is simple, utilitarian, and energetic, which effectively promotes their event as well as Rock Star.  Given these guidelines, our group first agreed on maintaining the clean, modern aesthetic characteristic of this organization. Additionally, we selected a similar color palette, using black, white, and a highlight color and planned on placing the Rock Star logo in all four mediums. While incorporating brand identity elements is important, they also advised us to focus on the concert as a brand in itself. Our first hurdle: selecting an original concert name. After much brainstorming,  we decided to title it "Listen Up"; a name that pertains to both the academic and music aspects of this event. Our concept is centered around an image of a raising hand holding a calculator. The hand and calculator serve as the main icon for the series and can be seen in other media. As opposed to a pencil or a ruler, we chose this school related object due to the fact that the calculator best related to the Macalester student's interest in using the slogan "rock stars: entering the equation, becoming the solution." Furthermore, we incorporated a hand raising the calculator hoping that it would be somewhat reminiscent of the revolution fist, a symbol of action, power, and unity. Also, in some pieces, circles radiate from the icon, which we implemented to enforce the idea of sound. 

Informative Series Final

After solidifying the overall concept in my final sketches, the next decision I faced was choosing my color palette. Seeing that we had the limitation of using only variations of one hue, I knew I wanted to work with either a burnt orange to resemble peanut butter or a plum to resemble jelly. I ended up selecting burnt orange. As you can see, my final work remained very similar to my final sketches. However, some changes I made include the removal of the hamburger from the poster, color separation between the visual and text components and a campaign logo. 

I am extremely happy with the final product. I think all three pieces are cohesive, but also offer sufficient variety as well. Obviously, the cohesiveness is apparent in the color palette, typography treatments, illustrative style, hierarchy of information and layout. The variety can be seen in the different tints and shades used from the pure hue in each design, the different images, ratios (numbers and symbols), supporting text and layout orientation. Furthermore, I think that the design is playful, eye-catching and clever and the message is simple, straightforward and logical. I believe the campaign would draw the attention of any parent if they were to see the advertisement at a grocery store, in a parenting magazine, or on the highway as they head home from work. 

Informative Series Sketches

First Round of Sketches

Second Round of Sketches

I began this project by researching more about peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and discovered a website called the "PBJ Campaign". Check out the web site at here. I came to find out that the organization   actually advocate's for the consumption of this lunch favorite. They claim that  replacing plant-based meals for animal-based meals can save water, conserve land and slow global warming. Without hesitation, I knew I wanted to run with this idea and came up with my own campaign  around the statement "make a sandwich, make a change", which I thought could best target parents with children. I found many great statistics and became particularly interested in statistics using ratio comparisons. For example, one statistic stated that "the land required to produce beef in one hamburger could produce enough peanuts for 19 pb&js". My first round of sketches tried to play with the idea of numbers and emphasizing that more is better. I used a repeat pattern of slices of peanut butter or jelly for the magazine and flyer and stacked sandwiches for the billboard as a representation of the greater number in the different advertising media. I intended a small paragraph to be placed beneath the number as supporting text. My second round of sketches, uses different comparison symbols and includes a hamburger and a chicken to further reinforce this comparison. The billboard, however, shows one sandwich and removes the number element. I also began experimenting with an illustrative style using line drawings and off-setting the fill color. My second round of sketches left me feeling more confident that I could successfully translate my vision into a cohesive, playful campaign for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.