Implementing Juxtaposition
Initial Concept:
For this project, the goal was to create a gig poster for a fictional band. I wanted to use my imagination to come up with a concept that would both fit the style of music that the band would play and express some sort of emotional tension by incorporating juxtaposition.
I think that juxtaposition is an interesting way to provoke complex thought within the viewer and to add another layer of depth within a 2-dimensional work of art.
Illustrations:
As I started the sketching process, I began to realize just how difficult this assignment would be, creatively. I had complete creative freedom and had to come up with a concept from scratch, which was a lot harder than I had anticipated. The struggle wasn't trying to come up with an interesting idea for a poster, but choosing between the many ideas I had. I had a hard time choosing between something totally weird, something a bit political and more historically focused, or something a bit more basic. Throughout my sketching process, I discovered that sometimes writing down ideas that came into my mind before I forgot them, as opposed to sketching them, had an advantage and helped my creative process more.
Eventually, I landed on the idea in the last page of my sketches. I wanted to have a space-themed poster with an indie-pop vibe of music. I wanted there to be some juxtaposition in the idea of pleasure versus pain (as depicted by blowing bubble gum and sitting on a cactus). I also thought I could add a lot of contrast with a brightly colored theme and I was excited to experiment with that.
Development:
Transitioning from the sketching process into the developmental stages was thrilling. At first it was intimidating; starting a creative project from scratch can do that. But it was really fun, and it only took me a few hours to get the first draft complete. I wanted certain parts of the poster to look more realistic, like the cactus on the planet, while other parts looked more pop-art style. I thought the juxtaposition of those two styles could add some visual interest to the poster.
After posting the screenshot of the draft on slack, I received some critiques that I should take away the wavy line on the orange planet, to add more contrast in the title, and to reduce the appearance of anchor points in some of the objects. I was worried about the texture I put on the sky and sand, but it was received pretty well. Some of my peers said it looked kind of like an optical illusion, which I think is pretty cool!
In the final draft, I didn't change much, but I did remove the wavy line on the orange planet because it looked unprofessional and messy. I also tweaked the opacity on the "We Three Trees" title to add more hue contrast so it was easier to read. I edited the spacing of the words on the bottom and added more height to the soles of the boots to increase the "punk-rock" vibe of the person. Overall, I think it turned out pretty great for a gig poster.
I believe I was able to complete my goal of creating a poster that was creative, fit the indie-pop style of music that this fictional band would play, and also incorporate juxtaposition within the poster to provoke some deeper thought. It is not perfect, and there are definitely some things I could perfect and make look more professional with additional time, but it was a good learning experience to expand my creative skills and use my imagination in a fulfilling way.
