Project 2: Poster | Wong

The Literacy Coalition of Onondaga County is having a small event to celebrate the NEA’s Read Across America campaign. This particular event is focused towards young children, between birth and elementary school. I wanted to do something that would show that reading was fun for kids, involve Dr. Seuss in the poster somehow (since the event is on his birthday), and still portray the event without having to write down “Read Across America” since the NEA logo says it.

I decided to use red, white and black for the poster because those are the colors of the Cat in the Hat, Seuss’ most famous character. Since I couldn’t really use the hat anywhere in the poster because it’s so recognizable and would thus be in violation of a copywriter law, I decided to try and imitate the cat’s bow – but not make it so detailed so it could also look like an ordinary bow, and therefore not violate any laws. This would hopefully attract young children and/or their parents. Then I wanted to portray reading across America without actually having to say it. So, making the United States into a book seemed like the best and simplest solution. I like having simple posters because I tend to not pay attention to busy posters. Simple and clean posters are easier to understand, especially for students and for parents of hyperactive young children. So, I decided to keep it simple and just have a USA-shaped book, instead of my original idea of having a child’s head thinking of other people reading books across the world. This way, there is a lot of white space, and the poster seems clean.

I chose the typeface Apple Casual because although it seems a bit decorative, it also looks like an elementary school student’s handwriting, and thus is kid-friendly. I wish there was some way I could make the font seem like it was written with crayons so it would seem even more kid-friendly, but I didn’t want to actually write out the font myself. The headline is based on Dr. Seuss’ book, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” so that I would have another Seuss reference, and then I have the event information next to the USA book. On the bottom are the organization’s logos – one for the organization holding the event and the other for the organization who created the nationwide event.

To make the bow, I traced an image I found of Seuss’ bow. Then, I added extra lines to add some detail to the bow and then I “live-painted” it red. To make the book, I first traced a map of the United States, but I didn’t want to make it very detailed – just general enough so that people could have the image of the USA in their minds. Then, I copied and pasted my trace, and then (using the pen tool) altered the image so that it would seem like the book had a cover. I also traced the edges of the first USA trace in order to create the pages, and then, using the pen tool again, adjusted my traces so that there would be a 3D aspect to the poster. Then, I used the knife tool to try and cut the book in half, so it would seem like it was an open book. Finally, I used the pencil tool to make scribbles on the pages, and then grouped all of the scribbles from each page together and sheared them to try and add to the 3D illusion. I decided to use scribbles instead of actually typing out words because I felt that if I had actual words or letters on the pages then it would be a very “busy” poster, and not the clean poster I was aiming for. The back cover is colored with a red radical gradient – I really wanted to try and emphasize the Dr. Seuss aspect by using red. There are three layers to the poster – the bow is one layer, the back cover is another layer, and the text, logos + pages of the book are the third layer. I like using layers because it helps me organize my graphics and thus make sure I have all the graphics I wanted or needed.