GRA217.4a

When approaching my poster for the first time, my primary focus was the demographic for my poster’s not-for-profit organization. My poster was advertising for my sorority’s annual “Build-a-Backpack” event, so my main target was a college student. We are usually supported by a lot of members of Greek life but I really wanted to reach out to the Syracuse community as a whole. This is reflected in my poster as I exaggerated the main event rather than the sorority holding the event. College students are known to be busy and rushing around to classes so I aimed for a simple poster, with minimal type. I also used color in my design because I thought it would catch the eye faster. Color gave the poster energy and a more childish feel, which emphasized the mood of the event. Most importantly, the sorority could afford to do this.

For the top of my mountain of backpacks, I knew from my sketches that I wanted an extremely bold, thick typeface. The typeface needed to stand out because it would be placed on top of a clustered and powerful image. Using a slab serif would be efficient. Aachen was just what I had imagined and it really looked like it could represent constructing or building of something. I didn’t even need to use all caps because it was strong enough in lowercase. However, this typeface became extremely hard to read as body text. Instead, I chose to use Myriad Pro, which I also used in my resume. I really like this font because it is simple and plain. I didn’t want to make my poster chaotic with clashing fonts. Both fonts had easy readability for quick reading because the typeface was either extremely large or very plain.

My main image is a cluster of purple children’s backpacks. I first live traced the backpack from an original image and then continued to copy-paste the image until I had enough to fill my intended space. Each backpack was rotated and specifically placed to make the pile look realistic. The event’s title was placed on top of the pile of backpacks to represent the idea of building up to something. I also thought the image led the eye perfectly to the title, which I intended viewers to look at first. I liked the blank space on the top left because it countered this crowded, cluster of backpacks and kept the poster simple. I used my slogan “Packing the tools kids need to succeed!” as a base level. It grounded the whole image above it. Lastly I added the information for the event and placed the logo at the exit point. I was hesitant to include the logo of Prevent Child Abuse America because I was worried about it clustering the bottom of my poster. However, I thought that it made the event a lot more legit and reputable. I chose a light blue background because it was subtle and mellow. The purple was a tiny bit more vibrant in that it stood out yet didn’t overpower the entire poster. Overall, I am very pleased with my poster.