Lesson Two - Poster One Critique

Following what I had read in the brief, and hearing about our homework over the last week, I had prepared 4 full scale A2 posters (each printed as 2x A3 sheets) for today's presentation. However, once arriving in class, it seemed that a lot of the class hadn't even looked at mocking up a proper poster digitally, and had more focussed on printing out a few graphs on their own. With this being said, it didn't bother me too much as I had quite a few concepts printed out that I was able to get valuable feedback on. I have included the images, along with annotations, below:

The above poster was my initial design, which was more just looking at getting some graphs on the page and look at creating some sense of hierachy between the text and graphs. I quite like getting an asymmetrical feel within the page, which can't be done to the full extent with only two graphs, so as I create more concepts I will definitely have a minimum of three graphs, that way you can create a more visually effective poster. In terms of the graphs, I would be better off to use the same style of graph to directly compare the School of Design with the School of Art, as it's difficult to tell with a pie chart vs a bar graph.

In the graph above, I added a third graph, and made sure I directly compared the same style of graph for the Art vs Design. I also tried adding a picture frame icon to add a bit of interest, although it didn't turn out quite as effective as I had planned, although still did add some intrigue to the design. With this in mind, I'll definitely continue to experiment with some infographics etc in order to 'spice up' the page, while still keeping it both simple and visually appealing to the audience and viewers.

My third initial idea for the poster layout has been attached above. It is reasonably similar to the second idea, although I removed the picture frame icon, and played around with the gold lines being placed on top of the text to create divisions rather than alongside them. This gives the lines more of a functional purpose as well, rather than being an addition just for aesthetic purposes. I quite like the layout and hierachy I've created within this poster layout, with the three graphs creating more of an asymmetrical feel. After hearing feedback from the teachers, I will look to change the top pie chart graph, as although the teachers thought it looked quite nice, it may be seen as slightly distorting the information (as 2014 might appear to have far more people in comparison to 2010). With the feedback I received, I will be able to continue to make changes and develop my ideas by next week.

My final idea consisted of playing around with some infographics to create a more aesthetically interesting poster. I really like this layout, and I was complimented on the hierachy of the text down the left hand side. One thing I need to consider will be which information I want to stand out, and which I want to be secondary, as at the moment 2014 seems super important due to it's scale in the "School of Art" division. I will look at changing the graphics as well, as the camera hints that the School of Art is all about Photography, while the lower third implies that the School of Design is based on film making, so I need to find graphics which apply to all fields of art and design respectively.

After the feedback in today's class, and also seeing some feedback that a few other students got for their graphs they printed, I have a few more ideas on how to develop and refine this poster. By next week, I am aiming to have a far more refined Poster One, and also a basic Poster Two and Poster Three at the very least. By having all three, even if the second and third are quite basic at this point, it will allow me to negotiate and manage horizontal relationships of grids and compositions across all three posters. I really enjoyed last week, creating the posters and playing around with various graphing tools, and I'. looking forward to having all three posters printed out in full scale A2 for next weeks critique.