Original Imagery - Posters

 Type of Posters

There are many types of posters for different events, but all of them have one thing in common, to draw in an audience. Posters are used all around the world to advertise something to a particular audience or to the general public. All posters have different ways to attract people through their type font, colours, objects, words and people in the posters. This page will go over the different types of common posters which will help me in making my own poster. 

Music Posters:                                                                                                                                                  These posters usually have the name of the band or people who are going to perform, the time and date of the performance, the venue, ticket pricing and a picture of the people performing. Some bigger bands have a tour which means there are multiple venues and dates, so that will also have to be included too. Essentials like contact information have to be included (the same goes for every other type of poster). The typeface is usually script because it makes the poster looks fun and exciting. There are usually pictures of musical instruments, musical notes and the venue.

Sports Posters:                                                                                                                                             These posters show the sports that is being advertised, maybe names and pictures famous sports players, what type of sporting event it will be (tournament or classes), ticket prices, the date and the venue. The type of sport decides what the typeface it will be. For example; a boxing event will use a bolder and bigger typeface to show the intense sport whereas, a school volleyball tournament might use a script or a softer typeface for the purpose being more for children.

Fashion Posters:                                                                                                                                           These posters look more mature with models standing very confidently, staring at the camera and showing off the clothes being worn. There are a lot of abstract shapes that look very simple and the poster doesn't include a lot of 'things' in the background. The typefaces are sometimes simple, like a light coloured slab serif, or they are playful, like script. Similarly, the date, time and place is included on the poster.

 Drama/Theatre Posters:

In my opinion, these posters are more informative and give a clearer understanding of what it's about. Whilst other posters connote something and relates to the event, drama/theatre posters directly show what the play/show will look like. These posters have more detail and have more objects. They also show actors and celebrities performing. All of them have a catchline to bring attention and to also give and understanding what type of play it will be.

Designers For Inspiration: Krzysztof Domaradzki (Studio KXX)

Krzysztof is commonly known as Studio KXX which is his brand name. He is an artist, graphic designer and illustrator. He has a Master's Degree in drawing and etching from the Academy of Fine Arts. Afterwards, he started making illustrations and storyboards for advertising agencies. In 2006, he started his own company 'Studio KXX' and worked for various global brands, small businesses and private projects. He works on designs on websites, covers, book illustrations, t-shirts and exclusive BluRay releases. He mostly works on movies and draws them very detailed and likes to add his own style such as; adding it with typography, drawing it in $1, adding fog or paint or anything that can fade away.

The use of typography is used in a clever way in this poster. The images are in some of the words which makes it look connected. The shapes are very simplistic with smooth round edges. I really like this one as it has a lot of detail and saves space by putting the images in the fonts, which most his work is based on. I would also like to try to attempt putting the images in the font that I will use. 

Bibliography: Krzysztof Domaradzki. (2006). Profile. [Online]. StudioKxx. Available at: https://studiokxx.com/Profile [Accessed 8 October 2024].

Drawing Posters

This section will go over how posters are usually thought out first. I will be drawing on pencil and digitally roughly to give myself an idea of how my poster for my event will look like. The drawings do not have to look the best and be the most artistic and it must be understood by the drawer. I will be adding more features but this is only a rough idea of the poster.

Drawn Poster (Pencil):

Drawn Poster (Digital):

Similar Poster Analysis 

Before making my own poster for my anime and gaming event, I will look at posters that have similar events so I know how to design my poster for my audience. 

This is a poster for the event 'Anime Expo' which is held every year at LA. It's the biggest anime convention outside of Japan and attracts a hundred-thousand people every year. I chose this poster because it's very simple and tells the audience what it is. This more befitting for a social media advertisement because the lack of information and design. This encourages the audience to check the description of the post or the website link it came with. Even though there is not much design, the characters encourage the audience to come to the event with their hand sticking out, almost as if they're directly telling the person to come to Anime Expo. 

This is another poster for Anime Expo 2019. On their posters, they have the same characters from the poster before, but a bit more matured and detailed. These are the mascots of Anime Expo, Max, Ai, Xeno, Mahoko and Kisegi. Having a recognisable mascot for the poster makes the poster well known and intrigues the viewer. This poster has more bright colours and more detail which encourages the viewer to look at the whole poster, which leads them to reading the details of the event. This is more befitting on a big screen and wall advertisement because of how much detail is added. The posters have a common theme of looking at the viewer which is directly addressing them. 

This is a poster for Hyper Japan, a Japanese cultural convention held in London. I decided to have a look on this one because I went to this event and it was on public advertising on the underground tube. There are small little details that I enjoyed, for example the soy sauce bottle, the manga speech bubble and the mecha suit being worn. This poster also stood out to me as I walked past by it, which tells me this poster is effective at drawing people in. The history of the Hyper Japan posters have grown a lot from being a bunch of photos and pictures being compiled together to more drawings with aesthetic and a mascot. I am also looking forward to what the next Hyper Japan poster will be.

My Digital/Graphic Poster and Original Image Poster

Digitally Designed Poster

This is my digital/graphic poster for my event. My event is a Japanese culture festival. I used Adobe Photoshop to edit and make this. I used the move tool to move the pictures and layers around and the object selection tool to automatically select an image. It can automatically remove the background of the image using the mask tool, and whatever is selected will still stay there. This means I can find images that I want, and if they're not a transparent image I can remove the background. Since it does it automatically, sometimes it does work and leaves some of the background behind, so I use the polygon tool. The polygon tool lets me to create my own box around the image to accurately select the image. For the text at the top, I used the horizontal type tool and used the font 'Barber' for a more bold, modern and retro look. Looking at the other posters that I analysed, I wanted to add a mascot so the viewers can recognise my poster. I added the lucky cat as my mascot. I also added famous people and characters that the viewers would recognise which would encourage them to go to the event. I also added famous Japanese brands to indicate their products would be there. I even did a test with my mum where I pretended this was a real event and she believed the poster was real. She had some feedback to give me which was to make the poster look more brighter. I thought back to the Hyper Japan poster and would give it a light pink. Overall, I am very proud of this poster. However, I didn't add anymore difficult skills and used easy tools. I also didn't add any details of where the event will be, how much are the tickets and contact information. Next time, I would like to learn how to include graphic drawings in my poster.

Original Image Poster

This is my original imagery poster with images that I took by myself. Since I decided to do a poster of an anime and gaming convention, I looked at the one I've been to before, Hyper Japan. Hyper Japan is a very big inspiration for me on these posters because it caught my eye while I was travelling the tube. I edited the photos that I took on Adobe Photoshop. With the digital poster, I didn't move any of the layers, but with the original imagery poster I was moving the many different layers around which was hard because I had so many meaning it was hard to keep a track of. I also used the mask tool to remove the background of the images I took. Some of the items that I own at home had to have decent lighting, so I used the 3 point lighting set-up to make the image look decent. Other than the books, cards, clothing, console and fake sword, I took the other photos outside of home. I went to places that I knew would have objects that I'm looking for in my free time. The process for making the poster was almost the same as the digital poster. This time in the text, I added where the event is held, the ticket price and the contact information. Since the process was very similar to the digital poster, I could have used more difficult techniques like adding shadows and highlights on the images to make it stand out more. I think I just need to experiment with Adobe Photoshop more and also use Adobe Illustrator so I have wider range of skills.