Project 2: Poster Mailer

For this project, we were asked to create an informational poster mailer (printed and folded) with the provided concert schedule for the Colorado Symphony.  

Our Constraints:

Size- 10″x16″, but create our design Tabloid size, full bleed, then cut to size and fold into eighths (5″x4″).

Typefaces- no more than 2 of the following: Avenir Next, Neue Haas Grotesk, Open Sans, Baskerville, Garamond, Optima, Univers, Futura, Didot, Bebas Neue

Colors- up to 3 Pantone Spot colors (plus black and the paper color). 

The design needs to be primarily typographic. Do not use photographs. Geometric shapes are allowed.

One of the panels needs to contain mailing information (address, return address, placeholder for stamp). Place our name and lab section/time in the return address field. The other lines of information can be made up.

Do not base our choices on the existing branding/colors/etc. of the Colorado Symphony.

Process: 

Stage 1: Ideation

First, I created a list of word list of 25 words that represent the tone I want my project to communicate. Then, I choose 3–4 of them to be my key tone words (in bold).

retro	bold	cheerful	playful	vibrant
confident	enthusiastic	ironic	animated	candid
complex	excited	joyful	witty	whimsical
earnest	complex	toned	bold	colorful
geometric	faded	block-like	vintage	fresh

Next, I created a mood board that visually represents my tone words. This board can be found here: https://www.pinterest.com/bennamallory/mailer/

Finally, I made 10 rough sketches to plan my design concepts and my layout plans.

Stage 2: Drafts

Based on my sketches, I created 2 expressive posters in Illustrator, and 2 grid based type layouts in InDesign. 

I then refined these once again to get my final product

Stage 3: Final Prints

Finally, I sent my 11×17 work up to a printer and cut it down to its 10×16 size.