AICE AS Art & Design 9704

Name: Brandon Nguyen

Candidate Number:1720

Exam Level AS/Art and Design/9704

Component 02: 30 April 2013

Centre: US015

Our task was to design a  poster for a conference called GOING GREEN in order to promote the recycling of household waste. In addition, we were to include a title, date, time, and venue. My first idea was based on the photography of Laura Williams (examples below).

A rough draft/sketch of my first idea using water color pencils, taken from my sketchbook.
A pile a trash in a field with a mirror on top, all of which is very heavily influenced
by Laura Williams' photography.

Although as the idea progressed, I felt as if it didn't grasp the concept enough, so I threw that concept out. My second idea was very literal in interpretation. The concept for waste from the kitchen, some food waste, to "go green" by turning themselves green via spray paint. 

While I developed this idea further than the last, I eventually threw this idea out as well, simply because I found it difficult to create a final product from it. My final idea was inspired by the loading screen from the video game "Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2".

This loading screen contains some elements that I felt were appropriate for the poster and could be recreated accordingly. First, in the top right, the game mode and map title are placed here. I saw that in a poster, I could place the title, date, time, and venue. Just like in the loading screen, this information provided the reader with the necessary information. Second, the bottom text in the screen where it reads "INTEL", and the following comment, had potential to be used for whatever information the poster needed to provide. Lastly, the composition itself, I felt, was simplistic and minimal. This are attributes that I admire and because of that, my final composition is quite similar to the game's loading screen.


My first few steps began with an the informative text in the top right of the screen, and loading bar, both of which are easy enough.

The choice of venue and date had no rhyme or reason, they were simply the first things that came to mind. The word "ADVICE" and seen above was used because I felt it had the same intention as the word intel. Intel, by definition, is information regarding the military, while advice has is more casual and friendly. The loading bar itself was easy enough and simple in concept, nothing fancy.

The next few step in the project that I felt was doable was the gradient around the sides, and the comment directly below the loading bar. I felt I needed a phrase or sentence that effected the reader, while still getting the message of recycling across. The phrase I've created is one that, I feel, gives the reader a sense choice which involves the reader and makes them feel more like a participant than a bystander. 

In the phrase, I made the words "Going Green" green, as to make it stand out more and give more emphasis to the text. 

Now considering the gradient, I felt that it wasn't enough as it didn't give the same effect as the screen shot. As a solution, I figured that i could could make one whole gradient by putting 4 smaller gradients together. First, I down sized the original gradient to a fourth of the screen.

 Then, I made a duplicate of the gradient via copy and paste, then flipped the image along the y-axis, before placing it appropriately.

As a final step to the gradient, I replicated the two gradients together and flipped that image along the x-axis.

Afterwords, I felt that the gradient at the bottom of the image should be darker, and that the word "ADVICE" needed to be changed. To solve this, I replaced the word with "REMEMBER", as I felt that this was friendlier and felt more of a reminder than a suggestion. I also added another gradient that ran along the bottom of the page.

When the two gradients are put together, and the word changed, they create the following image.

With a general background made, I now needed the main composition. For this, I used a concept of a trash/recycle/compost bin, which originally from my second idea. 

An example of a trash/recycle/compost container. 

Another thing I considered was the fact that the poster was to promote the recycling of household waste, so I decided to made my trash/recycling/compost container into three separate kitchen trash bins, like the ones seen below.

My first step in remaking these containers in illustrator was some simple cylinders. then curving the top line as needed. 

The next obvious step was to create the lids for the containers, but I decided that I would make two of the containers open and one closed. 

A color scheme guide that helped me choose colors appropriately.

The two that would be open are open would be to represent the recycling and compost containers, the one being closed would be the trash container. As for colors of the container, I made the recycling container blue and the compost container green, as these colors the themes, respectively. Due to the colors chosen for my main composition, the color for the background followed a split complimentary color scheme.

An excerpt from my sketchbook testing colors.

The containers when color is applied accordingly.

With background color.

During my research of loading screens of video games, I remembered an interesting game that I watched my cousin play called, "The Stanley Parables".

Screenshot of the loading screen.

 The fact that the text is continuous, where each beginning is also the end, and how it actually does not end, as the text suggests, is what intrigues me. So with this admiration in mind, I began to test my own versions of this using the Going Green theme.

Originally, I wanted to fill in the space at the bottom of the image of my project, so I tried using several lines, and some different phrases, most of with didn't work. Eventually, I decided that by connecting like you would in a game of dominoes would be better.

 First, I simply used the words "GOING GREEN" in a horizontal and vertical position.

But this caused me to be very limited in placement and made the overall look somewhat bland.

To fix that, I broke up the words and used them individually. 

One of the problems that came up, was that I absolutely had to align the words exactly on top of each other, otherwise it doesn't look neat.

A test to see if I could incorporate a phrase into it, which I could.

Knowing that I could now connect and create a web similar to the screen of "The Stanley Parables", I made it span the length of the loading bar, while still using the phrase in it.

At this point in my project, I left this as is and placed it below the loading bar and comment, but later on I would change it to where the phrase "Going Green starts with you" is spread throughout the entirety of the web.

The words "Going Green" and the phrase that accompanies it are in green, simply to draw attention to it and so it stands out. 

My decision on what font to use is as follows (this was decided early on during my research and personal study).

A page from my sketchbook regarding what font I would use.

In my final product, as shown below, I felt that there was too much empty space on the left side. 

In order to in order to balance out the composition, I redid the title, date, and venue.

I felt this was a bit better. In addition to the things that bothered me, several of the letters in the bottom text where they overlap are a few pixels off. This makes some of the letters seem darker, or thicker in appearance, but I left those as they were because I think that they help break up the monotony.

My final product.