A CIVIL WAR IN RETROSPECT
AREAS OF INTEREST • Poster Design, Illustration, Typography
TOOLS • Illustrator, Sumi Ink, Figma
INFO • In this process-based project, I analyzed a prominent artist in graphic design history and studied their methodologies to determine how they create. I distilled that information into a custom presentation and then created a combination typographic/graphic poster for a fake exhibition using those methods of creation. The designer I chose was El Lissitzky, so I created a poster using abstract illustration to tell a story about the Russian Civil War for a fictional exhibit featuring his work.
After that, I created a fake designer and exhibition and sketched 8 graphic posters and 8 typographic posters using the methodologies of making I had identified in my presentation.
After that, I made 10 posters sketches that combined both typographic elements and graphic elements.
I then experimented with a digital render of one idea and took it further, finalizing the details of my fake exhibition.
This was the finalized poster design. The final methodologies I identified from El Lissitzky were the following:
1. The work tells a story
2. Emphasis on experimentation
3. Use of geometric forms
4. Representative of politics and opinions
5. Complex representation in simplicity
6. Symbolism in reduced and simplified form
7. Use of collage to portray meaning
8. Employing many different methods, materials, and mediums for expression
2. Emphasis on experimentation
3. Use of geometric forms
4. Representative of politics and opinions
5. Complex representation in simplicity
6. Symbolism in reduced and simplified form
7. Use of collage to portray meaning
8. Employing many different methods, materials, and mediums for expression
In my finalized poster, I aimed to emulate El Lissitzky by using simplified and abstract forms to tell a story about the Russian Civil War. The poster is intended to be very abstract and hard to decipher at first, but elements of the poster begin to reveal themselves as the audience looks at it long enough; the poster depicts a woman crying, with what could also be interpreted as a smile on her face. The letters "MI' are hidden in the bottom half of the piece, representing my fake artist "Maksim Ivanov." There's a lot of chaos and tension in this final piece, from the ink splotches I made with sumi ink and then digitized, to the sideways text with tight spacing that's difficult to read from the perspective of this piece.
I also designed a set of vinyl stickers as additional design collateral for the exhibit. Vinyl decals are unique because each line in the sticker was separated, unlike other stickers where the entire design is on one sheet. Vinyl stickers can be cut out or rearranged to change their aesthetic, and that uniqueness served my concept well. You can change the story of my sticker by moving around the lines, and create new compositions with new stories. Below is my printed poster and my set of stickers.
