We had a choice of 4 projects for Illustrator and I chose to do a poster.  This allowed me to play with my creativity as I worked on the project.  It also allowed me to choose a topic I thought would be fun. 

Something I am struggling with is simplification and distilling an idea down to its essence.  My mode of operation is to complicate and make things way too detailed.  I want to learn to create sleek, clean forms and communicate the idea with as little fluff as possible.  I feel I got to it with the stamp project, so I again worked on it with this one.  This is actually very hard for me!

Charlotte provided inspiration by sharing one of her Christmas poems with me… her work always inspires, even when it is just a simple poem!

Twinkling tinsel
Miniature lights
Colorful glow
On cold, wintry nights
Berry berries
Popcorn beads
Shiny balls
On triangle trees.

Project: Create a poster without using photos, images, or live trace.  It must be all our own work.

Topic: International Christian singer/songwriter Sara Groves’ concert for “Food for the Hungry” on Dec. 19th here in Indianapolis.

More technical notes:

I struggled with the garland and then decided to create my own “cranberry” string as a brush stroke.  I also wanted movement… so I turned the triangles to give it a twist and twirled the garland.  With some fabulous coaching from Facebook buddies, I moved the star, gave it a twist also, and moved fonts around until we were all satisfied.  I absolutely love reaching out to other’s for feedback and suggestions!

Steve’s comments centered around simplifying the typography in the lower half of the poster, I am hopeful of a positive outcome.  He says he does not grade on typography (we will see.)  He suggested dropping it all down to the bottom of the poster and even making it smaller.  I have typography next quarter, so should learn the rules of how to use type to my advantage at that point. 

What thrilled me and gave me hope that maybe I really can do this whole “graphic art” thing, was that as I presented it I said, “Since the concert was about raising money for Food for the Hungry, I thought keeping the design elements flat and simple would be appropriate.”

“A Charlie Brown Christmas,” he said.  That is EXACTLY what I was doing … with maybe a slight hint of Dr. Seuss in the twisted forms.  This was very encouraging to me.  To be able to communicate that retro poster feeling and to have him nail what I was doing works for me.

I had fun with it, anyway!

Update Dec. 9:  Walked past the wall outside the classroom this morning and my poster was up there among the other chosen final pieces!  Wowee… that was a fun suprise!  Knocked my socks off to be so honored.  BTW… Steve has also gotten much better at giving me feedback, so I am now hopeful of getting him in further classes.  He is a very good teacher and even better when he steps into a coaching role.  There is a lot I can learn from him.