It's All Too Much

This exercise asked for two posters to be created for a local event - one full of details, the other containing the bare minimum. It was then necessary to look at which one worked best and why. The poster then had to be redesigned in the light of this and needed to utilise the best points of both.

I chose a poster advertising a local jumble sale and decided that, to get an accurate idea of which approach worked best, it would necessary to make the posters as basic as possible: the differences, strengths and weaknesses should come from the information provided rather than any other design factors.

The design full of information looked better than I had expected. I crammed the poster full of information but in terms of pure pattern I quite liked the result. However, it was perfectly obvious that even with time to study it, the information required by its target audience (what, where, when, etc) was lost in a sea of words.

At the other extreme, the poster with the basic details (what, where, when) felt too stark in my opinion. I also felt that some of the information left off the poster also weakened its appeal to its target audience, namely the fact that refreshments were available, that there was a tombola and raffle, and that it was free entry. I also thought it would be useful to provide a contact name for people who wanted to donate items.

When I came to redesigning the poster I was keen to keep the basic design as I felt any improvement should be based on the balance of information rather than any embellishments/improvements. One small compromise I did make was to colour-in the lettering to give the poster a slightly more 'finished' look. I think this poster strikes a good balance between providing sufficient information for its target audience and retaining its aesthetic appeal/draw to the same audience.

Overall I felt this was a useful exercise that illustrated the balance that sometimes has to be made between form/aesthetics and function/information.