2-7-15

History and Analysis of Design

Week 3: Assignment 2 Discussion

Assignment 2: Studio Assignment

Deadline and Deliverable

By Friday, February 6, 2015, create a poster promoting a social event, such as a theatrical, political, advertising, or cultural event, based on one of the historical periods covered in the lectures. Develop thumbnails and roughs along with a written rationale for the design. Include the design and supporting materials used to create the design in a PDF and post the PDF to the Discussion Area.

Steps to Success

1. Read the lectures and choose a historical period on which you will base the poster. Research the historical period online and find images and typography that match the style you will use. Cite the sources of your research using MLA style.
2. Decide on the social event you will promote and write a rationale for using the historical style. Validate your rationale by using direct quotes from the lectures, textbook readings, or other valid sources. Cite the sources of your research using MLA style.
3. Complete at least six thumbnail sketches and two rough designs as preliminary work.
4. Complete the final design.
5. Combine the inspirational images and type, thumbnails, roughs, and final design into a single document. Create a PDF and save it as W3_A2_lastname_firstinitial.pdf.
6. Write the rationale and post it to the Discussion Area. Attach the PDF to theDiscussion Area.

My Work:

    Sketches

Final Design

When I first started this out, I had read the lectures over and over and decided that I wanted to stick with the Industrial Revolution theme as in the lectures this week. I didn’t know very much about the Industrial Revolution other than what was in the lectures, so I went online to start searching. I found that there weren’t very many good reasons for having a poster or billboard like I wanted to find, so I decided to go with an advertisement for a hair growth serum. The reason I decided to go with an advertisement is that “While in earlier times, it would be unusual for an individual to travel much beyond the county or state of her birth, with the appearance of new forms of transportation technologies -- railroads, steam ships, automobiles, and airplanes -- whole new vistas of travel, cultural exchange, and commerce appeared.” (The Industrial Revolution) Therefore making it easier to get new products being sold my traveling salesmen. When researching things that traveling salesmen sold, there were a lot of random inventions, potions, and serums. I decided that a hair growth serum would be the most fun to work with.

I like to play video games in what little free time I do have, and one of my favorite games to play on my fiancé’s Xbox360 is Fable III. This game is based in a British town and in the game it is during the heart of the Industrial Revolution. I realized this after reading the lectures for this week’s lesson. So, I paid closer attention to the posters on the game and saw that there were quite a few and for many different reasons.

I found a few advertising posters from the Industrial Revolution while looking for inspiration on Google Scholar and decided to make my poster look something like the ones I found online. I used an advertisement from the Industrialization, Urbanization, and Immigration in the Gilded Age article for cocaine toothache drops as my guide for style and authenticity.

I used a parchment type texture for the background because with this being the age of industrialization, the paper would have been rough textured and not uniform in color for the most part. I went to dafont.com and was looking for a wood type font for the poster and ended up finding Woodcut and was quite pleased with the way it stood out and was very legible on the poster. I also used Baskerville Old Face that was a stock font already in my computer for the body of the poster. I put a picture of a man that is clean shaven on the left above a “before” ribbon, and on the right, an “after” picture of the same man but with a beard grown that I found in an old newspaper clipart image. The name of my salesman is a name from the video game I mentioned earlier because I couldn’t think of anything else at the time of designing. Overall, I am happy with the outcome and I believe it is generally true to the time period.



Works Cited:
"Industrialization, Urbanization, and Immigration in the Gilded Age."Hist111/industrialization. Web. 15 Dec. 2014.

Olson, James. Revolution in America. Ed. Robert Shadle. Vol. 1. Westport, CT: Greenwood Group, 2002. 313. Print.

Video Game Screenshot. Fable III. 2010. Lionhead Studios.

"The Industrial Revolution." 1. NCSU.com. North Carolina State University. Web.

"Woodcut." Dafont.com. 29 June 2012. Web. 4 Feb. 2015.