I really liked the first example of a multi-modal translation project that Professor Lueck showed us last class. It was a somewhat minimalistic poster that used only pictures and colors to convey meaning and capture the audience’s attention. Like I mentioned in my previous blog post, I want to take a similar minimalistic approach to my project using hand-drawn illustrations, a few words, and color. I want the poster to be as easy to understand as possible and not require the audience to do too much reading and analysis.
Similar to what I did in my previous blog post, I looked up some more examples of minimalistic posters. I tried to determine what seemed to be key components throughout all of the posters I looked at. Here were some of my findings:
In all three posters, there are very few words used, and when they are used they are big and easy to read. There also seems to be a consistent use of contrasting colors to make the images and messages stand out. This is not surprising considering this medium relies heavily on visuals to engage the audience.
Something I noticed in the first poster especially is its heavy use of symbolism. The cigarette, for instance, represents the start of the fuse that leads to a bomb which would destroy the heart. This image alone clearly conveys the message of how smoking kills, and could even have been left alone without the words. This powerful and easy to understand visual is the type of component that I want to include in my project.
Another component I noticed was in the second poster; it uses a witty phrase, which both conveys an important message but is also eye-catching. I’m hoping I can come up with a similar saying about censorship that I could include in my poster, but because pictures are meant to be the primary components of my project, if it becomes too distracting I’ll just leave the drawings without words.
This research has helped me gain a better idea of what specific elements I want to include in my poster.
Images Cited
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/d6/e4/a4/d6e4a40a7149e8793ee371d62784e25d.jpg
http://daisysartdojo.com/wp-content/uploads/2DaisyColchie9-112gradeposters.jpg
https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/disp/2251c019499549.5604071c6f77d.jpg