For this exercise, I was asked to create an A3 poster and an A6 flyer both advertising an event for a singing course run by SingOut. The final pieces would be reproduced using a black-and-white photocopier, so the designs had to be suitable for this purpose. Some copy was provided to feature on both the poster and flyer, and it was advised that there should be continuity between the two designs.
I began by dissecting the brief and identifying where to start. I also wrote out all of the provided copy so I had it to hand when researching and exploring options. I was quite excited to work within the constraints of this brief, as I find limited colour projects to be a lot of fun. The black-and-white photocopier mentioned in the brief made me think of the resurgence of photocopier zines in recent years, as well as the punk posters of the 1970s, which I felt I could really lean into with the music-themed brief.
I collated some reference material from these two genres, and in the process discovered a whole art form called Xerox Art. I had never heard of this before, but I loved the concept and the work produced within the genre. I have, without intentionally knowing it, created art before that would be considered Xerox Art, though I had never seen the worth of it before and thought it was just a bit of silly fun. I was excited by what this could mean for this exercise.
Reference material gathered for this exercise
I wanted to use some imagery in my designs, so I thought it would be best to collect some before I began idea generation. I used Unsplash and searched for ‘singer’, ‘microphone’, and ‘music’, saving any pictures I felt I could utilise. I then edited a handful in Photoshop by turning them black-and-white, using the threshold command, and playing with the exposure and contrast. I wanted the images to be bold, stark, and eye-catching, even when reproduced. I felt this was especially important given that designs can look faded or washed-out when they’re printed, scanned, or photocopied.
Next, I started to consider typography options. At this point, I realised it would be most logical for me to produce the bulk of the design non-digitally, using collage and traditional doodling to create the DIY effect I was aiming for. I wanted a typeface that was striking enough to stand out against the page, and that I could cut out in quite a choppy way – similar to what I saw when collecting the 70s punk posters. I chose Berlin Sans, Eras, Fat Frank, and TW Cen MT Condensed, and increased the kerning on them so there was plenty of space to cut out each letter. I wrote out ‘SingOut’ in all caps four times, once in each font, then saved them as a PNG.
I added the PNG to a new A4 file at multiple different sizes so I had options for my design. I also added the images I had edited, once again in a range of sizes. I then printed this off and began considering the composition of my piece, and how to organise the information. I started by sketching out some initial ideas, but I quickly realised that it would be a lot easier to just play around with the physical pieces of paper instead. With this in mind, I grabbed an A4 piece of paper to use as my workspace and began cutting out the lettering and images I wanted to use.
Once printed, I really felt that Eras was the best typeface for this design, so I began by working with the cut-outs of this title. I also cut out the images I had printed and started writing out some of the copy onto spare pieces of printer paper to add as well. I tried out a few different ways of writing this, like using all caps, a neater version versus a messier version, and cutting out the paper in different ways.
I thought that the all lowercase neater ‘Do you love to sing?’ was the best of the four, so I moved on to the other information. I decided to cut out a piece of lined paper as a speech bubble as if the person singing was saying what was on it. I thought that maybe using a different type of paper could help add visual interest and hierarchy to the piece.
To the lined paper I added the location, price, date, and time. I also intentionally left the blue lines from cutting out the paper, as I thought it added to the DIY vibes. I then used a Sharpie to write out the phone number and website and added them in the space below the microphone.
Using several different types of pens – a biro, Sharpie, and drawing pen – to write different information was a great way to break up the page without having access to colour or actual typefaces. The lineweights mean your eye is drawn to the bolder things first: the organisation name, the question ‘Do you love to sing?’, and where to find more information if interested. The details are there for anyone who wants to look further or who has been drawn in by the other parts of the poster, without creating clutter.
I wasn’t sure how to add the paragraph of text provided without overwhelming the piece. I also wanted to use crayons to add details with variation of texture, and in order to do that I had to commit to the piece. I decided to scan in all of the cutout pieces so I had a back-up digitally just in case I changed my mind. I used a piece of black card for this so that the pieces stood out.
Once scanned, I realised the poster would maybe benefit from having this black background entirely, so I decided to do two copies. The first version I would complete by placing each piece of paper onto the scanner, then adding the black card and scanning. The second I would complete by sticking the paper to the A4 sheet and adding details there. I added digital details to the black option and compared the two when printed to see which I preferred.
I cut out a large piece of paper to fill the space in the black poster, which I would later add the paragraph text to digitally. Next, I placed each piece of paper in the machine, ensured they lined up perfectly, and then scanned to check it. I continuously tweaked the paper until I felt happy with the scan outcome. There are still some areas that I think could be improved, but with how hard it is to do this upside down and back to front, I think I did a pretty good job!
When I was done with scanning the poster, I opened the file in Procreate and began adding text and editing. I used the typefaces Thonburi and Cat Cafe for the paragraph text and ‘no experience needed’ elements, and then used a coloured pencil brush to add some doodles around the page.
After that, I went back to my A4 sheet of paper and stuck the elements down. Instead of the larger piece of paper for the paragraph text, I wrote directly on the page using a drawing pen. I outlined it using a crayon, and along with a biro added some similar doodles to the piece as I had in Procreate. Next, I scanned this in and printed both versions off to see how they reproduced. I think they both work fantastically, but I personally prefer the black-and-white version. Everything stands out so much more and it’s really eye-catching, like I’d hoped.
Before continuing, I decided to find some photocopier textures to apply to my digital files so that they had the same feeling as the printed versions. This really elevated the pieces and helped them feel more ‘real’. I was already very excited about how my vision was playing out and felt like the posters had the DIY punk zine vibe I was aiming for.
For the flyer, I largely repeated the same process. There was some difficulty with navigating layout, however, as A6 is really small. I cut out an A6-size sheet to work with to make sure I understood just how tiny this would be, which helped a lot when navigating the placement of information. I copied similar techniques to the poster but changed what information was placed where. For example, there’s still a speech bubble of lined paper on the front of the flyer, but this time it just says ‘Do you love to sing?’ instead of having the details. The details are on the reverse instead, this time with greater hierarchy than the paragraph text.
I utilised the lined paper here too, this time creating more interesting shapes to help the information stand out more. The front of the flyer has the most important information: the organisation name, the contact details, where to find more info, and a call to action. The reverse has extra details and the paragraph text, so those who are interested can read further. I feel like the flyer especially benefits from the addition of digital type for the paragraph text, as on such a small scale the handwritten copy goes beyond DIY to just ‘messy’ and unreadable.
As before, I edited the black flyer in Procreate to add details and type, before adding the photocopier texture to both flyers. The flyer was a lot harder to scan than the poster because I was working on such a smaller scale. My scanner is a little bigger than A4, so it’s pretty easy to figure out where everything belongs in that space. It’s harder when you need to organise within a smaller space, so that was challenging.
The brief for this exercise mentions that you can use coloured paper if you’d like to. I don’t have coloured paper to hand to print on, but I did see that zines are often printed on pastel-toned paper, so I wanted to test how my designs would look in these contexts. I added pale purple, blue, and green colours to the white poster and flyer and used blending modes to show the black design against the ‘coloured paper’. I love how this looks, and I think the coloured options are way better than the white option. I still prefer the black overall, but having coloured paper really elevates the design.
Finally, I used some poster and flyer mockup files I found on Freepik to see my designs in action. I think they look incredible and very successful! I was happy with the outcome and it was nice to see my designs in practice.
I really enjoyed how this exercise made me think about how to organise information in very different formats. I’ve made posters more times than I can count now, so I have a pretty good handle on how to organise information within this space. Moving from that to a much smaller, 2-sided space was really interesting and helped me think about the hierarchy of information in a new way. Furthermore, the restrictions of both working traditionally in a DIY type set-up and working with limited (or no) colour helped me re-frame how I see visual hierarchy to find new ways to create visual interest in a piece of work.
I am happy with how I managed to connect the poster and flyer in the designs I made, and I think they flow together nicely. It’s clear that they’re for the same event, and I also think they’re unique and recognisable as advertisements for the SingOut organisation. I really enjoyed working in a more playful way throughout the exercise, and found the collage aspects to be a lot more intuitive than they were back when I did Abstract Cities.
Overall, I feel really proud of my work and the outcome of this exercise. I’m excited to see how I can use this medium and format more moving forwards!
Learning Log 