Brief
This brief is set by the artist Erik Kessels for his D&AD talk in Manchester on 5th April:
"It always rains in your country. Make a poster for visitors to the UK explaining why so much rain is attractive. Don't be sarcastic. After all, rain can be romantic, useful or beautiful".
Looking for strength of an idea and conceptual merit.
Print poster A2 for the module submission | Hand in on thursday 8th | Submission deadline 26th March
Rationale
Brief: What is the problem you intend to solve?
I intend to answer the competition brief and make a poster persuading the viewer that the rain in the UK is a good thing.
Who needs to know?
People who are going to this D&AD talk, so people interested in the artist, Erik Kessels, and people interested in design, specifically supposed to be aimed at visitors to the UK
What do they need to know?
They need to understand that this poster is directed at them, and that it isn't just trying to look good, but to persuade them that the rain is good
Why do they need to know?
They need to understand what the poster is about as they will probably initially think that rain is a bad thing which the UK is known for
What will they respond to?
They will view the poster at the talk
What research is required?
Primary
- I need to try and take some photographs of the rain if it rains
Secondary
- I will research Erik Kessels
- I will research illustrations / images of the rain
Ideas
Why is rain attractive?
- Romantic
- Used in romantic films
- The noise of the rain on the window while you are safe inside
- Calming sound
- Washes away the past
- Without it there would be drought
- Farmers need it
- The world needs it
- The sun needs a break
- Play in the rain
- Water to wildlife
- Makes you feel alive
Poster Ideas
- A quote I thought of based on my ideas, "To dance in the rain is to feel alive."
- Map of UK showing rain fall for last year and why it is good
- Image of what UK would look like without rain to show how it is needed
- "Beautiful rain" - type made of image of raindrops
- "We Love The Rain" mix of rain and UK imagery
- B&W line illustration of London skyline with raindrops in colour and text about how we are proud of the rain
- Illustration of umbrella with the text about why the rain is good falling like rain
Development
To start with, I will research the artist to see what his style is to see if he can inspire my designs. I've also thought about why I like the rain, and asked others why they find it attractive. Kessel's style is very type based so its hard to imagine how I could create a piece to fit in with his style, so I will just go with my own style. [see blog post]
I am worried about how easily it will be to get a photo of the rain especially as its a really sunny day so I think I will have to illustrate this. So, I've looked for a few illustrations of rain to find something thats done well and doesn't look cartoony. [see blog post]
Here are some quick drawings of my initial ideas:
I have decided to go with the idea of drawing out a map of the UK and writing some quotes about what people think about the rain. I'd like to start paying a bit more attention to type, as my work so far had been all image based. I've created this poster on illustrator, tracing the united kingdom off a map and the united kingdom flag. Here are some screen shots of the development of my poster.
Crit Feedback
- Make size of text for quotes smaller (more like 20pt rather than 30pt) considering it is being printed A2
- Try capitalising the letters at the start of each quote
- Try using the raindrops without the dark shadow
- Like the colours, work well together
- Could try bullet pointing the quotes with raindrops
- Spells Ukraine (without the e), try changing the positioning or the word
- Could change the colour or weight or size of the UK
- Maybe put the heart somewhere else
This feedback has really helped me as I had got so stuck over where to place the raindrops especially. I'll now make these changes and hopefully will have my poster finished and ready to print soon.
