The format that I chose to utilize for the concert poster assignment was the Horizontal Line format. The reason I chose this format is because through viewing various different posters online, I found that the Horizontal Line to be the most appealing. Another format that I considered was the Vanishing Point format. Drawing out two mock-ups using different formats, I actually began by highly considering the Vanishing Point format. However interesting I found the Vanishing Point, after much though and consideration, I found this format unnecessary and potentially distracting so I then decided to use the Horizontal Line Format. I specifically liked the organization and clearness that the Horizontal Line displayed as a poster.
Having the majority of the concert poster text on the bottom of the poster, I decided it would be necessary to only use one font to state the date, time, and location that the event was being held. I ended up choosing the font “Kino MT.” There it no specific reason why I chose this font other than because I thought it looked interesting. This font is a sans-serif font. Although all the text on the bottom of the poster was the same font, I manipulated each section of the text by kerning and leading. By kerning, manipulating the space between each letter, and leading, manipulating the space between lines, I was able to avoid redundancy. The second text that I added on the poster was “CEN Presents:” at the top of the poster, sitting on the left hand side of the band’s logo, a white square the words “THE 1975” placed in the center. For this text, I chose to use the font “Skia.” The reason I chose this font is because it closely matches the font used the band’s logo I wanted to differentiate between the top of the poster, which only included the band, and the bottom, which included the concert details. I chose to locate the “CEN Presents:” on the right hand side of the poster because I believed that if it were centered above the centered logo and the centered band members, the poster would have a sense of redundancy and predictability.
Regarding the images, I only included two in my concert poster. The first image I included is a photograph of the four band members standing in a row. I found this image on the band’s website. Dragging the image I wished to modify into Photoshop, I decided to utilize the black and white skills I learned in previous classes. Having the layer selected, I clicked the button on the bottom right-hand of the screen that had was a circle half black and half white. Choosing “Channel Mixer,” clicking the box the says “Monochrome,” the clicking “Manipulate RGB,” I was then able to select “Curves” and manipulate the black and white image to create intense shadows and a quality black and white image. Next, I used the selection tool to select the band members and erase the background, leaving it transparent. I saved this image as a “Photoshop ___.” Once saved, I was able to drag the document from the desktop into my already existing document in InDesign. The second image I included was the band logo. Using this image was much less time consuming that the first because I used the entire image and did not have to use the selection tool. In InDesign, I placed the band logo in the center of the top portion of the concert poster. As for the band member,s I placed them slightly on top of the band logo so it looks like they’re standing in front of it. The original image had not included their full legs so I decided to move them toward the bottom of the poster and make it look like a large black bar differentiating between the top and bottom of the poster was cutting off the image. At this point, the background seemed very plain— a white background. Playing around with effects I discovered the Gradient Tool. I liked this tool and it fit perfectly with my black and white theme. Including this effect, The background went from black to white which also worked to my advantage to daw the eye towards the band members and and concert information that is at the bottom of the poster.
As for InDesign as a whole, I really liked this program. I thought the initial usability was very simple to understand however I notice that there are very many tools to be used by the advanced designer. One aspect about InDesign that frustrated me though was the “Smart Snap” option. Smart Snap allowed the user to easily align images and text however it made for moving an image by only a hair very difficult and frustrating. After some frustration I found that I could shut off this tool momentarily and this solved my problem. However frustrating the document could be at times, I really liked how InDesign allowed one to set images into place. I liked how before I added any text or images, I was able to place Image Boxes and Text Boxes into the document to set up the poster how I wished.
Colin Mallory 