Design Campaign: Lights. Camera. Education.

The Poster Design

Poster 11×17 – 300dpi -> Download Click Here

I decided to start the design process with the poster. As the largest of the four pieces I felt creating the poster first would also work to develop the designs for the other pieces. Looking for a consistent design, that wasn’t simply copies, but clearly all work together was perhaps the most important factor in my design decisions. I should note that the photos I had to choose from were few, but the designs are setup that changing the pictures are quite simple as new photos are taken and available.

Working off the of the logo I designed in an earlier assignment the communication goals for the designs can be summarized as follows:

1. Must clearly indicate BLC Studios is an educational studio at Bethany Lutheran College
2. Education and programs available should be spelled out in pictures and words
3. The use of motion, energy, and vectors is key
4. The poster design should capture attention from a distance and serve to drive people to the college Web site. It should not contain too much information, rather push people to want to learn more about the program from other sources

I started with the idea of using large colorful photos in the arrangement of film strip. In order to create interesting motion vectors I decided to skew the frames of the film strip, but to keep the photos in proper orientation as to not distort them. Skewing the actual photos made the poster seem troublesome with distorted faces and so on.

Rather than continue the film sprocket holes all along the top and bottom, I thought including only a few at the top and bottom would make the design simpler, with the audience still seeing a reel of film. In preliminary tests it seems to work as many did say they saw a film reel in the design. This might be a stretch from some, but I think it works.

Coming up with a good catch line seemed important to me. Not only did the design need to have rich colors and photos to capture attention, but a catch line that people would easily remember. Lights. Camera. Education. seemed a great fit. Replacing the Action. with Education. fits with the goal of making sure people understand BLC Studios is an educational program. Maybe it’s an over used expression? I’m wondering your thoughts?

I modified the logo a bit after receiving your feedback. With so many elements going on, I actually made it a bit simpler, wanting to be sure it was easy to read and something that stood out. Placing the logo at the bottom right follows the Z look pattern theory, where the viewer would see the logo last and most likely remember it the most.

As I’ve mentioned, the photos were placed into skewed shapers that I turned into a layer mask. If you don’t remember, it’s wonderfully easy to mask photos this way. Simply draw a shape, drag the photo to the layer about the shape, hold the alt key as you hit the line between the shape layer and the photo layer. This connects the images to shape mask and now you can transform the image inside the shape anyway you like. Changing the photos over time will be a simple task.

Overall, I am pleased with how it turned out. It represents my third try in the process, but I think it meets my design goals. Having those simple goals really drove the design because I knew which elements were critical and which ones didn’t serve a communication goal for this piece.

The Web Ad Banner

Having developed the general concept for the design campaign I proceeded next to the Web ad banner. I knew it needed to be simple, attractive, clear and consistent with the rest of the designs.

The logo needed to remain central and the banner needed to communicate video/audio production and education. I decided to leave off the college name simply so that it would not become to cluttered. I felt the words Lights. Camera. Education. would satisfy the goal of encouraging them to click and visit the site for more information.

I am still considering the use of the photo. I wanted to keep it simple and clean, but maybe three different production photos would still have worked, even with this small size. Again the design isn’t so much the actual photos used, because they can and will be changed frequently and easily. The framing, the motion vectors, the logo, the colors are key design elements that will not change and what I considered the most important thing to consider in the over arching project.

The Letterhead

8.5×11 Letter Head

The Postage Stamp

Postage Stamp

As I’m you all probably found the stamp was the most difficult. Trying to keep an connection with the overall design and its communication goals in such a small space is no easy task. Here I felt a picture clearly showing film production and the name BLC Studios would have to do the trick. I couldn’t find a way to clearly fit the entire college’s name and the slogan or tag line Lights. Camera. Education. also threw me for a loop. Keeping similar colors, motion vectors and the logo in this small package seemed the best way to keep things consistent and still meet the communication goals.

The border around the picture should probably be adjusted as I reconsider at the image it seems to large compared to the other designs.