FSU? Shoe Company--Poster

Artist Statement

The inspiration for this poster came to me when I was watching my friend skateboard. My idea came from watching his different tricks and seeing the angles that the board could make in contrast to the ground and his body. I photographed him with the intention of creating a skateboarding poster and focusing more on the board. After going back over my photos, I began to edit the photo I used of his legs and the board for my skateboarding advertisement. While playing around with Photoshop, I realized that his front shoe was going to be my main focus of the poster, not the board like I had originally intended.
After I realized that my project was going to focus on the shoe, I quickly began to redo the edits I had previously made that isolated the board in contrast to the background. Although Photoshop was difficult, and sometimes very frustrating, to work with, I slowly began to find different ways to incorporate the things we had learned in Digital Media. For example, I felt that I represented the CRAP principles well through the variety of elements I added to my poster.
My main element, contrast, is shown through the shoes, first and foremost. They draw the viewer’s attention right away, which was the whole idea behind having the bright blue. There is also contrast in the background due to the layering of the city versus the brick wall along with the water and the concrete. I felt this element was a unique way of showing different aspects that make Toronto the great city that it is. Not only is it a city of many skyscrapers, but it also has a beauty to it that is shown through this poster. I wanted to have the body and the board overtop of the city to show the focus of the advertisement as well. Through the person and the skateboard, I felt that a viewer might be inspired to buy these shoes to achieve their goals as well. Another important element included in my poster was alignment. The city background was put on a slant in order to align with the brick wall that was behind my subject. I felt that the waterline being connected to the concrete at an angle was a cool way to add a different type of alignment.
By doing a poster for FSU? Shoe Company, I had a chance to work with Photoshop, which lead me to find a more creative side of myself. I really enjoyed not only taking the photographs, but also making decisions when it came to incorporating different colors, pictures, fonts, etc. Even though I faced many challenges when it came to the actual editing, I was able to produce a poster that I proudly can call my own original design. Before this project, I was not very excited to working with Photoshop since I had such little experience with it and felt inadequate. Now I am anticipating working with Photoshop in the future and creating even more intricate and exciting projects.

Comments

1. I learned a wide variety of information when dealing with this digital media project. I found out how to navigate more successfully in photoshop. Through working extensively with this program, I now am able to isolate objects, such as the shoes in my poster, and change their color or the background around them. I can also incorporate various images with one another and blend them together in a more professional way.I also discovered different techniques that deal with typography and design elements. Through the hours spent in the lab working on my poster, I realized that I'm going to have to be more patient when learning how to navigate new resources such as photoshop or protools. If I work on being patient, there is still an infinite amount of new things I look forward to learning.

2. I found the in-class critique of my work very helpful. It was good to get an outside opinion on the work I had done and to also receive some constructive criticism. For the most part, my classmates and professor found my poster interesting and thought I had done a good job working with the different elements of design. One of the critiques was on the font I used for the FSU? Shoe Company label. Professor Warwick told me he felt that it was an inappropriate typography for the message that I was trying to send to the viewer. I agreed, but I had been unable to find a more appealing font when working with Photoshop. He also critiqued the angle at which I had incorporated the background image of the city behind the skateboarder. Although I wanted to add the element of alignment, I can definitely understand where some people would prefer a straight line. I was complimented on my use of color as well as the isolation of the shoes. I felt I did a pretty good job and my classmates seemed to agree with me. I was proud of my first finished Photoshop project & I can't wait to complete more!