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Promotional/Opening Posters
The next thing on the list is posters for the cafe, with more focus on the "coming soon" posters.
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First, a few examples were chosen during research to be evaluated and studied on what made an appealing poster on par with the cafe.
The nice thing about this poster is that it displays a variety of dishes, all within a good and simple colour palette. The various typography is not loud or too hidden, the bold font in the middle acting as a good focal point. The stripes and filled in lines on the sides are used well as borders to the poster, and also acting as more space for negative areas on the poster. The use of different languages within the poster is effective in its own way as well, intriguing viewers to see what it's all about.
There is a great amount of negative space in this poster compared to the other 5, but it works well as it is accompanied by great texture. The focal point of the scooper with the beans acts well as a divider or border between the negative space where text could be placed and the rest of the composition. For my brief's situation and colour scheme, the black background would be altered to a lighter background, which may also help emphasize the coffee elements within the poster.
This is a good poster when deciding to display two similar products with a good amount of contrast to one another. It's very simple in terms of everything except the product's detail. The colour palette, typography and composition are straightforward yet effective. The lighting gives a good dynamic and leading line to the product. The text does not interfere much, so that's another good thing.
This poster makes good use of natural lighting and white balance. The focus is slightly blurry towards the edges of the plate, so the only thing differentiating between the plate and paper is the slight shadow and syrup. There is a good use of the very limited colour palette, not overwhelming the poster. Typography used includes bold for the main title, useful in catching attention and a standard one for the details and promotion. The catchphrase at the top is effective in its own way as well, appealing to a certain audience.
There is a good amount of focus on the product's texture and contrast between the plate and the product. This also gives a minimalistic feel as there is not a lot going on in the composition and the negative space is prominent enough, for there to be text there. However, even though the text fits well with the overall aesthetic of the poster, it's not very visible from afar, so maybe using a black text in this context would be more effective.
This poster does more with shapes in terms of composition, keeping a small and muted colour palette. Shapes are mainly focused on circles and rectangles so that everything feels quite sophisticated and clean. the typography is well incorporated into the negative space in the bottom left, while the top's typography might be slightly better if it were bolder. The poster gives a feeling of homemade and natural for the products and process. It is effective in its selling point too.
Next, came taking the photographs to use for the posters. The following is a contact sheet of the pictures taken.
Next, general recreations of some of the posters were done. This helps in figuring out which aspects of the posters seem more appealing than others and which should try to be avoided.
This is my rendition of the poster above using sago and white background. Using colour matching from a curve generated as a new layer, the brightness was increased and the white balance matches the reference photo. Some changes were made to the graphics added, for instance, the borders have circles added to the corners along with the colour changed to be black, this gives a better leading line emphasis and a more solid border as it contrasts from the product and background better than blue. The cafe's logo has also been added in the bottom right-hand corner, keeping its staple yellow colour. The text added has remained black, taking advantage of the white-black contrast, just like the border.
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All in all, it is a good starting point to get a solid idea of how the other posters will be produced, what to consider and what to avoid when given a base picture to work on.
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such as:
consider light tones with dark accents, gold/yellow-ish elements so that the logo fits in well, old-timey feeling and a comfy feeling
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try to avoid:
awkward positioning/composition of typography, odd fonts, fuzzy images, dark images
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By summarising the research and evaluation this way, it makes it easier to apply them when making the final posters.
These are the posters made for the cafe, after going through the experimentation with the references and documentation of them. The final products of each poster are compiled together after all the progress to be presented as a collection altogether along with a conclusion.
This was the first poster made, using colour correction and a bit too much white balance correction, which was then later removed for the final poster. Close ups of the product have been added with wonky white lines, too make the poster seem less sophisticated and uptight.
For the second poster, the composition was a bit more lax in comparison to the first poster. But, it works either way, establishing a comfy feel with the appropriate colour palette.
Colour correction and matching was not done for this poster. A curves layer was generated and altered to give a bit of white balance correction to it to ensure that it did not appear too yellow. Text was then added next.
Colour matching was not done for this either. Instead, a slight alteration to a curve added was done to brighten the image due to the number of shadows present. The text was then added and the final was made with the addition of a few other elements. Definitions were not added to this one as it seemed that it would clutter up the space too much.
Final Outcomes
These are the final posters for the cafe. All of the four posters have a reoccurring theme of definitions, as the cafe aims towards a foreign food market, specifically the UK food market. There is a high chance of people not knowing what the products are, so the definitions were added to inform people about it more, should they choose to read the poster for its details. The posters also have an occurring theme of a yellow-ish/calming colour palette, except for the bottom left poster, which is why it is excluded as a strong poster, regardless of the impact it has.
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