Design Practise: OUGD503 - Responsive - Propella Events poster

I was approached by a member of Propella Events. An organisation that runs music events based in Liverpool specialising in House and Techno club nights. They were referred to me by one of my existing clients. The poster needed producing for their event on the 5th December. I was given a three day turnaround so I didn't have much time for the project. The poster had to include the date and time of the event, the line up and a some other necessary copy however this could be small print. Other than this I was given pretty much complete creative control

I spent a small amount of time online looking at existing promotional material for similar events. I also spent some time trying to think of a concept I could base the graphics on. In the end I decided to just use the name of the night, 'Propella.' I felt this name in itself had enough visual connotations to work from. I wanted the poster to be mainly type based anyway so all I needed was an idea for a background of some kind.

After looking at some images online and doing some rough sketches I came up with this very simple pattern that I felt would be interesting to work with, especially after adding colour.

I spoke to my client as they hadn't mentioned anything about colour when I had spoke to them initially. They said that they wanted to use greys blacks and red after I asked them about the colour scheme. I went on Adobe Kuler and found this colour scheme. I really liked it but felt it needed something else. I used the tints and shades on Illustrator and added a lighter version of the red to the colour scheme.

I set up a few very simple guides using golden ratio values which would inform some of my design decisions.

I positioned the type on the left hand side of the poster and added the same gradient to it that I used on the shapes. I experimented putting it at the top and on the right hand side also but I felt that this looked the best.

I experimented with softening the edges of the shape by using the brush tool in Photoshop. I decided that I preferred the hard edges at the top and the bottom of the design.

I spent a fair amount of time trying out different positioning of the information. I tried multiple variations to ensure the hierarchy of information was correct but eventually settled on one that I was happy with.

I spoke to the client and although he was happy with the design there were some things he wanted changing. Despite my better judgement I made some of the changes that he asked for.

As you can see the client asked for a fair few revisions, each time making minor changes. He asked me to change the gradient from red to white, to red to black. I explained that I didn't think that this would work but continued with it despite that. After making this change and some others the client decided to go back to my original design. Although it seemed like I had wasted time making these revisions, at least in the end the client chose the stronger design. He asked me to remove the border and add some more information but the final design is very similar to the original.

I am happy with how the design turned out and feel that I have secured this client for further work. I also made a Facebook cover photo based on the poster design.