1-Week Posters

From concept to final execution in 7 days, while balancing 5 projects, these rapid-fire posters were invaluable exercises in efficient conceptual design, iteration, and visual storytelling.

Snow Falling on Cedars

A poster to connect this play’s themes of WWII-era racism and discrimination with the lives of young people today.

Challenge

As established theater audiences age, the Seattle Repertory Theater strives to attract new viewers in their twenties and thirties to the stage. David Gutterson’s Snow Falling on Cedars is a play separated from this audience by decades and social circumstance, but the story of discrimination at its heart has the capacity to resonate with young people today.

Solution

Using framing and visual metaphor, I emphasized the central themes of prejudice and incomplete perspectives by creating a spatial barrier between the play’s protagonists. The two figures face away from each other, separated by a row of cedar trees, each unable to fully see or know the other. Flat illustration speaks to the flat planes of set pieces as well as targeting a millennial audience. Color hierarchy and texture create depth and visual interest, drawing the viewer’s eye through the piece from the milky red sun at the top to the subtly jagged typography along the bottom.

Student work

Wu-Tang Clan

Putting a Seattle spin on this hip-hop group’s characteristic “W” logo helps make this poster an artifact of the moment.

Challenge

Gig posters serve dual purposes as both advertisements and keepsakes that commemorate the experience of a show. This poster for the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan’s performance at the Capitol Hill venue Neumos needed to reflect both the music and the place that would shape that experience.

Solution

Inspired by the Wu-Tang Clan’s famously sharp, rapid-fire lyrics and Kung-Fu roots, I used visual metaphor to turn their words into literal katanas spewing forth from the artists’ mouth. The back of the mouth forms a subtle nod to the “W” logo for long-time Wu-Tang Clan fans. Rough marker illustration situates the poster squarely in Seattle’s music scene, and bright colors on black call to mind neon and stage lighting to complete the Neumos atmosphere, making this poster a reflection of the live show experience.

Student work

Barbies for Sale

Using subtle visceral horror to catch the attention of unlikely Craigslist buyers.

Challenge

I was tasked with creating a poster out of a Craigslist ad that would stick in the minds of a group of 25 to 35-year-old designers, despite them having no practical use for Barbies.

Solution

Using unsettling photography of a sprawling nest of Barbie hair and limbs, I paired characteristic Mattel typography with a fleshy pink overlay and roughly-outlined blue highlights to change the ad’s narrative. Instead of a random Craigslister selling Barbies, Barbie herself pops into frame to offer up her mass of sentient friends, ready to infiltrate your home.

Student work