Exercise - Too much or not enough information - Part 1

I've selected my event from the local paper

 

Looking at some other designs for inspiration

 

A selection of designs for the film Black Swan http://www.designscene.net/2010/12/black-swan-posters.html 

An eye catching design from War Child http://zambezi-art.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Posters_C.jpg

London Transport has so many great designs I couldn't select my favourite http://www.ltmuseumshop.co.uk/posters.html

 

I jotted down some ideas, I feel more comfortable with lists than mind maps - is this something I should be working on...?

 

 

I did some thumbnails.

sometimes the problem is that there are too many ideas and I can't begin to decide which I should pursue.

Tole painting is big on canal boats http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tole_painting with images of flowers an castles being typical http://pinterest.com/angelandim/canal-boatnarrow-boat-english-tole-painting/

I liked the idea of using face painting (one of the activities in the festival) and face painting the advert

onto a willing volunteer, like www.buymyface.co.uk/ This may in part be inspired by Stefan Sagmeister's rather off putting (to me) self harm promotion http://blog.modernica.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/sagmeister.jpg While I was at it I watched his TED talk online about sabbaticals http://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_the_power_of_time_off.html 

 

I imagine the face would be something on the lines of;

but I found it very difficult to draw a mock up (this would frighten small children!) 

I didn't have a willing volunteer so I tried doing myself in the mirror - I'm not sure I really want to show you the results.....

Overcoming the fact that I haven't got the face for this I think it's difficult to read so

I rejected the face painting idea (plus I don't think it is enough about the canal festival) Also I'm rejecting the beer glass idea which may not attract families.

 

 Some more sketchbook ideas and another thumbnail

 I like the way coloured pencil goes over a black background so I drew some buckets

but a black background isn't going to give the right idea on a poster (and would be expensive to print) so I used Paintshop to change to a more suitable (and to my mind canal like) colour.

I used publisher to put some lettering on

First impressions aren't that promising but it's a bit better with a few more letters - this certainly isn't a candidate for  the minimal information option in this format

 I think it stands out a bit better with white lettering

 

I still haven't maxed out on the information. I could do with adding the URL for the organisers website, advice about parking, the names of the performing bands and might like to inform my audience that the event is in it's 11th year. It is already a busy crowded poster and I think anything more would make it unreadable but think I tend towards minimal information to wet the audiences appetite - we will see with the next attempt!

 

This design could work better with hand drawn lettering, white with a black or dark green border, maybe a good quality photo of a more colourful bucket or better still a jug (maybe a bucket gives the wrong idea?) I would like to experiment with a watery background and probably ought to ground the bucket onto the roof of a canal boat.