After receiving feedback and test printing >___< I printed out my final poster for presentation at formative deadline.

The printing process was quite challenging as the first printer had problems printing out the green colours and also had weird lines running through. Thankfully the next printer was more successful. This serves to prepare me for the printing process of the final publication which is likely to be even more challenging.

The concept of the poster is to convey the idea of remembering that one has lost a memory. As an introduction to the project it suggests the themes of memory, loss and searching that will be investigated as well as the narrative aspects, art style and mood that may be used.

The poster depicts a maze falling out of a person’s head, drawing analogies between the head and a container as well as the brain being like a maze. The typography is used in a way that reflects their inherent meaning and themes.

The visual elements and lines in the poster encourage a flow from upwards to curving down to the body of text. The focus point is the word ‘something’ in the maze to highlight the significance of the lost memory as a focus in my concept. As the maze is quite complex in forms, the other visual aspects are minimal to avoid over-busyness. Having experimented with textures and different colours, the final result keeps these aspects minimal, with the use of tones of one green colour with black and white as well as only a very subtle texture in the lines to capture a drawing quality.

An organic drawing-like typeface is use for the first part of the sentence ‘I remembered that I forgot’. It is juxtaposed with the more structured sans-serif Proxima Nova for the body text and ‘something’, the geometric shapes of which match lines of the maze. The body text is quite ragged to the right (as opposed to being more justified) in order for the lines of text to mirror the paths and walls of the maze.

The typography and image are integrated, the first part of the sentence is used to illustrate the idea of the idiom- ‘in one ear and out the other’ to do with forgetting while ‘something’ is presented as the blank spaces in the maze to convey the meaning of the word in this context- ‘something’ that is lost but leaving a shape in the mind and compelling a search for what is forgotten.

Since the concept of my project is quite abstract, the visuals takes on a more connotative and metaphorical approach to describe a cognitive circumstance. The body text explains the idea more while the imagery aims to capture interest and put across the overall mood and theme of the project.

Direction Onwards

I feel that I have a clearer sense of where I am headed in my publication after going through the process of designing a poster that acts as a proposal for my project.

In terms of colour, I feel that I would like to keep using the colours I have selected, along with black and white. Flat colouring, blank space and line drawings are the main stylistic elements in my poster, I think I will keep exploring this in different ways- maybe experiment with screen-printing or paper cutting as techniques that can work in this style. I would also like to keep experimenting with shapes and textures.

I want to explore visual metaphors, acronyms, devices and idioms related to memory, forgetting and memory recall/loss throughout my publication as well as alluding to the more abstract themes related to my concept.

One of my aims in this project will be to achieve a sense of text and image cohesion in my publication so that they play with each other in terms of meaning and shape.

The concept for my publication will be an illustrated story of vaguely remembering a lost memory and a search for it. I will interleave the story with parts that explore memory in different perspectives including philosophical and scientific thinking on the subject perhaps in quotes or summaries. Perhaps to demonstrate a difference between these informatory parts and the story, I will use different stylistic elements or typography to create a contrast.

The main story should be fairly simple and leave room for interpretation.