Poster Design Class

After speaking with the Graphic Art - Literature Interpretation professor, we went to the Poster Design studio. This is open from 10am-5pm on Wednesdays and is very much a 'drop-in, drop-out' class so it did not matter that it was after 10am when we arrived. The studio was fairly full up and most of the students were female. They were practicing their handwritten calligraphy using ink and brush/dip pens. They had guide sheets in front of them to help them to get the thick and thinness of each stroke right. I would definitely like to try some whilst studying at ASP as I don't feel that my handwritten type is particularly good, I need more practice.

Other students practicing calligraphy 

The calligraphy guide sheet 

We sat down and got out the work we had produced so far for the class. We had been asked the week before to come up with a range of design ideas for British film posters and then create 3 final posters. I had created a series of 9 thumbnail drawings, 3 thumbnails for each film I had chosen. I decided to illustrate Paddington, Alice in Wonderland and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I chose these particular films because I have watched them all quite a few times so felt I had a visual picture in my head of the sort of poster designs I could create. I'm unsure as to whether the Alice in Wonderland film I have chosen is classed as British because it was directed by Tim Burton, an American film director, but the book it is based on was written by an English author, Lewis Carroll.

My British film poster thumbnail designs 

I had also created one larger poster of one of my Paddington thumbnail ideas. I wasn't very pleased with how this had turned out because I hadn't got the proportions quite right, the bear's legs were too small in comparison to his suitcase. My text was also uneven and not of a particularly high quality so I definitely need to work on that. I might paint the final poster rather than use pens because I think the colour quality may be better and it would suit the fact that I would like to work on a larger scale. I am going to re-do my first larger poster design so will post it once it is finished.

A4 sized poster - will recreate because the composition and proportions aren't quite right

Whilst we were in the studio, the three tutors came over to us to have a look at our work. The first words that the main Professor said is 'beautiful work'. This made me smile because I was a little anxious that I may not have understood what they had asked for completely. I drew the thumbnails in the style I use for all my projects and they really liked the way I had laid it out. Other advice and feedback I was given include - check the spacing between hand-lettering and add more text such as the director and cast names. Also, practice doing hand text many times.
They particularly liked my Paddington bear thumbnails because of the way I had played with the composition, considering both positive and negative space. The female professor actually lifted up my work at one point and showed it to the whole class, exclaiming in Polish! I was a little surprised but felt quite honoured that she appreciated what I had created.

I showed them the larger poster design I had created for the first Paddington thumbnail as well. They said that the smaller design was better and I agreed - on the larger paper I had drawn the legs too tiny and the stroke and thickness of line quality wasn't as successful.
They suggested I could scan my thumbnail sketches into the computer and then enlarge them. I did try this in the Poster design studio with the help of one of the tutors as the computer was set up in Polish language. Unfortunately, the scan did not work very well so I was advised to go up to the photography studios because the scanning equipment up there is of a better quality. I will do this once I have collected together all the work I would like to scan.

My feedback for the other film thumbnails is that they aren't as strong as the Paddington drawings. The Alice in Wonderland 'dress' sketch has no head and legs which they didn't like, they weren't sure if the composition worked very well. They felt that the playing card sketch has a lack of form and the teacup sketch is not such an interesting composition. I will go back and improve these so that the final posters I create are more successful.

After they had chatted with me, I practiced some of my handwritten text. I intend to buy some drawing ink so that I can do some in a calligraphy style. I think a brush or dip pen dipped into ink produces a better quality of line than using a calligraphy or marker pen.

I enjoyed the class and the learning environment so look forward to the coming weeks as I develop my poster designs further.

My calligraphy - I need to use spacing and gridlines to ensure each letter is consistent - I will practice this with ink and brush

Polish film posters exhibited on the studio walls