The cold wintry wind
that blows so hard that
the sun sinks in the ocean
- Natsume Soseki
Joy, A. (2016, October 2). An Introduction To Haiku In 5 Poems. Culture Trip. https://theculturetrip.com/asia/japan/articles/an-introduction-to-haiku-in-5-poems/
Alone - When you think about alone , it could mean a lot of things. Being alone generally is understood as having no one. No friends, family or loved ones or it could just mean a lonely day at work. The haiku being followed on refers to the sun sinking into the ocean. It talks about how the winds blow the sun into the ocean. The sun could be described as being 'Alone' in this situation. Therefore multiple themes such as drowning, losing and loneliness were explored while the designing of this poster.
The lecture leading up to this poster was about colour theory, typography , signifier and signified. The lecture was also about typography and its fundamentals.
The things that worked well for me during the designing of this poster was that I could use multiple colours which is something I like. Using the rule of thirds and object placement gave me a systematic procedure to designing making it very organised.
I was able to place the main objects in the poster in blue shapes , the title and subtitles in red shapes and the flow direction in pink lines. The rule of third is a fundamental principle as it allowed to place my objects in such a manner that it would catch the attention of the human eye as well as be design accurate.
The things that didn't work too well was my knowledge about illustrator and online designing software. It took me some practice hours of designing various other objects before I could come to doing my project but all this practice is very beneficial as I have learnt new skills of online designing which will become a major factor of future designing where everywhere shift from paper to online.
My inspiration for the poster came from the cover of the song titled 'Drowning' . The cover involved a person sinking to the bottom of the chained to a very big diamond. This symbolized that people today are often chained down and are somewhat ' sinking' in self integrity and pride due to their unquenchable greed for materialistic objects. This gave me a lot of inspiration for my design. The poster that I designed at the tutorial was loosely based on the cover of the song.
The first development that took place on the poster was based off the one made in the tutorial session. The setting sun was feature along with a drowning hand. Both drowning in the ocean. I dropped the idea of this type of poster after I didn't receive the results I desired.
The image below shows the first development towards a final design.
After consideration of the earlier development. I decided to pursue the theme of loneliness which could also be merged with the theme of drowning. Therefore changes were made to the design and various options were explored. Two iterations were made before the final design was created.
The first iteration had a monochronous theme with a limited colour scheme. I didn't feel as if it did portray the message very well. The typography was also simple.
The yellow in conjunction with the grey didn't really make the main objects of the poster stand out. There different saturations of yellow were used making it more darker but also adding various values to it. Along with yellow, the secondary colour orange was also used. This allowed for the transition or colour from something darker to lighter. The reflection of the sun was also shortened to create emphasis at one point rather than something that was flowing.
The orange along with the yellow for the sun made the 'O' in the title stand out. A high saturation of yellow as well as desaturated tone of yellow was also used. In terms of typography , alignment, proximity and contrast were explored. The title showed proximity in terms of the way the letter were arranged close to one another to create the idea of the 'O' in the title being the sun. Contrast was also used in the title as the title is cut between sky and ocean. This shows the various viewpoints of people on loneliness. This is because some people thrive when they are alone and do work by themselves wheres other people benefit to working in a group.
Alignment is seen in the test used as all the text is centre aligned. This is because the main objects are centre aligned too. This is to allow the observer's attention to be centered.
The signifier in the poster is the hand and the sun. The sun relates back to the haiku where the winds push the sun into the ocean. The sun can be understood to be drowning under pressure from the wind. The sun sinks and has no one with it to fight the wind. It shows how alone that sun can be even though it is such a mighty force of nature. The hand is a signifier to show how lonely people can get. The hand reaching out symbolizing a person asking for help but no one there to help them. It signifies helplessness and being alone. It also gives the audience a sense of giving up and losing in life. Just like the sun, the person is helpless in this situation because they are alone. The hand and the sun have been merged to portray the same message. Being alone hurts even if you are strong and successful. You could have all the wealth and luxury in life but with no one by your side, all of it is worth nothing. You can have all the money in the world but you cannot buy happiness, peace, joy and most importantly companionship.