Decisions Behind Poster No. 2

This is the finished version (prior to class 'crit) of my second poster. This one was based upon Russian constructivism propaganda from the Second World War:

It is promoting Facebook's ability to allow you to connect with the world far more extensively and personally than ever before. I drew inspiration from this "Soviet Hands" poster:

I found the Russian propaganda really interesting due to its strong colour schemes and interesting layouts however, I chose this poster in particular for two main reasons. The first was it's off kilter composition. Everything was ay a 45 degree angle and some of the main text appeared to be clipping behind some of the imagery and off the page. And the second was how distressed and worn the poster was. This example here is the most vibrant and intact image I could find but you can still see visible distress and fading even on this poster.

I tried to mirror the design as closely as possible whilst still retaining some originality and clarity. I made sure that I made the poster very close to the original in terms of layout, composition, typeface and the level of distress and wear however, I did change the imagery and colour scheme marginally.

Typeface:

The original typeface:

My chosen typeface:

I feel as though my chosen typeface is fairly similar to the original. The problem with Russian style font faces is that they are not very easily readable, particularly at smaller sizes. I wanted to maintain the balance between readability and style which was quite tricky to do however, I think I found the balance. My chosen font face is a little sharper than the original however, I think that it works as it still looks powerful and sharp which are two major themes with Russian propaganda.

Colour:

The colours I have used in my design are a little more subdued than in this example of the poster. I wanted to experiment with making the poster look really distressed and worn. This included making the colours look faded and worn. It was quite different to my first poster and that was intentional so I could experiment with both styles.

Layout/Composition:

The layout is almost identical. The only real difference is that I made the text clip behind the Earth and the edge of the page more than the original as I felt that it was really unique and striking. The original came tantalisingly close to clipping the text in certain areas however, never actually did so I wanted to experiment to see how it would look. I think that it really works and looks really interesting. I definitely wanted to keep the 45 degree angle to everything however, as I felt it was really eye grabbing and interesting.

Additions:

The only real change is the image in the centre. The Earth and the like hands beneath it. Both are quite different to the original. The original focused around an actual photograph which is very different to the vector, computerised style of the Earth and hands at the bottom. I thought creating a soft, cartoony Earth would be quite a nice contrast and big eye grabbing feature to the poster however, I kept more to the Russian theme with the hands as they are very sharp and I think powerful. This pays homage to the original design whilst the Earth does the opposite and I think it is interesting and works well.