GR Reads poster process

GR Reads is "summer reading all grown up." It is a summer-long series of programming developed around 10 books chosen by the smart people working at the library. The 10 books all revolve around a common theme. This year's theme is "you are here."

My original idea for the poster was a "quilt" of symbols, one for each of the books. This is in keeping with other solid flat color designs I usually use as part of our brand.

Then I thought I should try filling in the symbols using the book cover art and that led to experimenting with a collage of images. It's a little different from what I usually do and I absolutely love it. I am very pleased with how the final poster turned out.

Bonus reader challenge: See if you can spot the differences between this one, which is the chosen idea and the top one, which is the final version with several little tweaks to improve it.

A taste of poster design

The library's biggest event of the year is happening in just a few days! Taste of Soul Sunday celebrates African American history and culture and is wildly popular year after year.

This is the poster design we used, which is very similar to years past:

As a creative experiment, I tried refreshing the design. The "8" represents the fact that this is the eighth annual event. I used some images from past events mixed with images of this year's performers and presenters. I think it gives you a sense of the flavor of the event more quickly than the tried and true design. However, because it is not as thorough and doesn't list every single presenter, the committee decided against using it.

I suppose in a perfect world I would have had enough time to attempt a blending of the best elements from each of the two designs. Part of me thinks that probably wouldn't have worked anyway. I think the strength of the experimental poster was the fact that there was less to digest.

"X" marks the spot

Nothing is graphically stronger than two intersecting lines. I prominently featured the new logo for the teen film festival in this simple poster design. For once I feel like I was able to leave the poster design as simple as it really deserves to be.