Design practice

Beard posters.

Some mock up designs for the back of the "20 benefits of a beard" 

based around the idea that Having a beard will make you appear wiser.

To begin with, I selected the wisest man with a beard I could think off, Charles Darwin. I then worked with the old swedish proverb " Wisdom is in the head and not in the beard" and reversed it to become " Wisdom is in the beard and not in the head" Almost like I'm disagreeing with the proverb. I wanted a really sentimental feel with the posters as well as a traditional one. So I decided to work strictly in monochrome. For the proverb, I used a Garamond typeface. With it's delicate anatomy and history I thought this was a perfect typeface to choose. I positioned the type inside of the beard of Mr Darwin because the beard is the subject. But I also positioned it so it followed the shape of his beard. This was for more of a healthy and comfortable read. Also, his big, pure white beard is the instant focus point. So I positioned the type inside so that the reader would be drawn straight in to the message. I also took the point size of the type into consideration. I wanted to be subtle with the message. I never wanted to shout the message across as I'm not forcing anyone to grow a beard but promoting it. The fact that it's the only piece of type in the poster, and is placed in the main focus point shows the importance of the message. Also , with it being so small and hard to read it makes the viewer look at it for longer.

Same photo of Darwin but this time the type is placed nearer the bottom of the photo. 
The white text contrasts against the dark background making it stand out. 
Admittedly it does make it harder to see but it also makes the viewer look at it for longer.

In this variation, I wanted to see what it would look like if I were to shout the message to the viewer. 
I chose a thin, sharp modern font such as futura to see how it would affect the traditional feel of the poster.
 It looks okay but it's definitely not appropriate. Maybe it would work if I had a living person with a modern beard?!

Once again, same photo but this time I have inverted the colours of an area so it could hold text. I then used helvetica. It's a very neutral font which carries no personality. Again, I wanted to see how it would affect the message. It doesn't give the same traditional vibe as Garamond does but it is better than futura. Because it has no personality it lets the message stand on it's own.

I have split Wisdom into WIS DOM. This was to strengthen the pronunciation of the word. Once a word is broken down it is understood more.