The deconstructivism activism poster is a project that I will be completing for my graphic design class. The prompt asked me to think about what I feel passionately about and to use that to create an 11" x 17" poster using the new type systems that I learned in class. 

The prompt had an emphasis on making this poster more feelable than it is readable. This poster should be something that evokes a response and a feeling from the audience that sees it. It should be a postmodern style aesthetic that is influenced by the early-90's style of deconstructivism. 

The main piece of the prompt in this project is the emphasis on deconstructivism and emotion. My poster should feature overlapping, orienting type differently, fragmenting, and other "messy" ways of designing to make my work have emotional qualities. 

I started this project with a preparatory exercise that had me exploring four new type systems that could be effective in deconstruction-style work. These four type systems are radial, dilatational, transitional, and random. For each of the four type systems, I was instructed to make two versions while keeping them both dynamic. 

This preparatory exercise constrained me to using only one basic typeface, Helvetica Neue. The challenge was to create dynamic models of the text while being constrained.

From left to right across both rows, we see radial, dilatational, transitional, and random typesetting with grayscale value ambiguous figures. Along the top row, I had to use the same typeface, size, and weight, while being held to only using one grayscale circle. Along the bottom row, I was able to play with my typeface size and weight while continuing to play with orientation and juxtaposition. The bottom row also allowed me too use more ambiguous shapes and multiple shades of grayscale values. 

The next step of this process was to do research on the style of work that I was going to be doing for this project. I was given a list of designers, a list of postmodern design styles, and a list of modern design styles (foundations of postmodern design). My quest was to pick one thing from each of these lists and then find three pieces from each one that I chose so that I could analyze some commonalities between the three. 

For my first piece of research, I chose the designer Neville Brody. 

Neville Brody is a graphic designer and typographer that advanced his design with time. His big thing was to "break the rules" of graphic design and to use type to make people feel and use it in a creative way. He uses lots of different styles. What I noticed is the way he decides to randomly enlarge or minimize certain letters in words to make them pop in a different way. He also uses bright colors at times. He also designed his own sans-serif typefaces, and if you notice, he uses sans-serif typefaces extremely often.

For the second part of my research, I wanted to look at New Wave Graphic Design style.

I thought the new wave design style was extremely effective. I love the way that it draws in the eye with its use of bright colors and dramatically placed pieces of the new wave components. I notice that the new wave style includes a lot of geometrically accurate shapes and figures like in the second picture with the cone and the cylinder and the grid over the type. I also like how the new wave style uses bright colors to pop in contrast to the black and white that is used as a secondary color. 

Finally, for my third piece of research, I chose Bauhaus Graphic Design style. 

I found this style to be super interesting and super basic at the same time. The Bauhaus style looks like it lays on a diagonal axis, and it uses only three colors generally. The primary colors, red, yellow, and blue, with white as negative space. The design style also uses very precise shapes and very general shapes, such as circles and squares. Almost all the Bauhaus designs looked the same, but I found it to be an interesting niche of graphic design.

After working on my research, I had to begin to do some discovery exercises to find pictures that I could use for my official deconstructive activism poster. This was labeled as "discovery and chance" explorations, in which I looked through some old yearbooks, newspapers, advertisements, online libraries, and many other forums, looking for old pictures that inspired me towards an idea for my concept. I decided to choose something close to my heart, which is the ongoing problem of mental health in student-athletes. Here are the photos that I came across in this exploration. 

Following my research, discovery, and exploration, I had to begin to put some of these ideas into motion. I took inspiration from the photographs that I gathered while using some other photographs that I found along the way. I was instructed to do what we call "Breadth explorations" and "Depth explorations" in which I take three completely different ideas and iterate them for the computer. Once I create each breadth exploration, I make a depth exploration for each, refining pieces that could be enhanced. After creating these explorations, I will print them off for a critique with visiting professional designers. 

Each breadth exploration has an equal depth exploration to show what I changed along the way to try and enhance my piece.

In my first exploration (far left) I changed all of the font into black while leaving the red dollar signs on the eyes. I thought that made it pop a bit more, but I still don't feel like it is completely readable. Additionally, I added a white rectangle to make the headline pop a bit more.

In my second exploration (middle) I added more lines of text to create the radial look that I was going for with the text. Additionally I dropped the silly looking cartoonish devil outfit that I had him wearing, but I kept my color scheme all together because I thought it was still working although I had changed pieces.

In my third and final exploration (far right), I changed the text within the navy to a bright red color, and I resized some of it to make sure it completely fit within the area I was trying to fill. I need to keep working on the fill, but it is getting somewhere. Additionally, I dropped the NCAA logo because I thought it made the piece look cheaper than it already looks. 

After I created these three explorations, I had a critique with a professional designer that was invited to class. I actually got a lot of ideas from my critic. He was a fan of the radial design of text that was in the second grouping of photos, but he liked the pop of color that was incorporated in the third grouping. He told me I should add some color to the second one to make the text pop a little bit more or to change how the text is laid out on my third one. 

I decided to stick with my second exploration and create a few more iterations of that design to continue fine-tuning my poster up until the date that it was due. Here are the three iterations that I added to my original work. 

In the first iteration, I simply added some color to the background and added some more figures in the top right corner of the poster to fill some more space. I also adjusted how the text was to be presented, but I thought it still felt really empty.

In the second iteration, I put the text coming from the athletes in the corner rather than from the commissioner in the bottom corner. I thought this worked a lot more and I had more text to add there. But I still felt like it wasn't enough for this extravagant project. 

So, for my third iteration, I added another figure by the commissioner, and I added radial text to both of the corners of my project, and I set them with different colors to create not only a contrast of text but a feeling of contrast between the figures in the two corners. Additionally, I added a headline to the bottom right of the page. I did one more iteration adding my final touches, and that became my final poster. Here is the final poster:

In my final poster, I knocked out the color fill over one of the athletes to make the poster pop a little more and to fill that empty space that I had. Additionally, I slightly enlarged the dollar signs over the eyes of the commissioner. I had a tough time with this project, but I do feel proud of the work I put in on this one and the result that I ended up getting.