So the brief was for a festival to take place in next year in Northampton called 'Middle of Nowhere'. I knocked together a load of obvious festival-looking ideas before I got anywhere close to something interesting. I wanted to avoid the whole Summer of 69 vibe, illustrations of flowers and trees, summer and sun, love and peace and harmony because let's be honest festivals aren't about that anymore.
(You might need to right click the picture on the right and have it open in another window to follow the steps).
ONE. So this is the starting point. I wanted an empty sky that had some drama and a little bit of detail. I found this on Flickr on a search for sky and fog. It took a while, but it was perfect.
TWO. The next step was to colour the frame to make it look more dramatic and flattern the tomes a little. I added a couple of layers of distorted pigment that I found on iStock Photo and used the Hard Light filter to make these sit on top of the photo and let the detail and scruffiness bleed through.
THREE. I wanted to age the poster, in a non-trite way. I really liked the US posters for Death Proof, they were artificially aged really well, so I borrowed that kind of look. I wanted them to look like they'd been folded in someone's loft for 30 years and the gloss has all stuck together and ripped off when it was pulled apart.
FOUR. For the title of the festival I wanted to build something illustrative into the photograph and not simply overlay the type on top of it. I played about with several ideas including a reel of film and a cinema canopy, but eventually I decided on instruments and cameras. I've used Gretsch drums and guitar and an old cine camera to hold the text.
FIVE. The final step was some flatterened colour correction and to overlay the type, I used a new font I’ve found called Coolvetiva, crap name, but lovely font.
I brought contrast up in Photoshop to bolster the hues and make it look more juicy. Finally I placed the logos, I love putting little logos on posters, I always think they give work some authority.
The festival is currently in negotiations, so it's all underwraps at the moment. When the final work is signed off it will be on my Flickr Site.
1 comment:
First off, nice image. People don't realize what kind of work goes into the everyday images that they see in magazines and on billboards. And most likely, they don't never think about it. Granted the gap of people who "don't know" how to do any kind of image manipulation is ever shrinking, but, it is still takes talent to put it all together right and make look good.
Make it invisible. It's not enough to just know the software, these days. The technology is constantly changing. New software to keep up with with, new techniques to learn. Just like Monet and his pallet, todays masters have an Apples. Digital is becoming the dominate paradigm. No body uses film cameras anymore, it's all digital. People become used to it's convience, even take it for granted. And by doing so, taking for granted the talent and hard work that goes into those images.
To the least, anyways, I liked your design and I liked the technique you applied, it did give it that grainy 70's feel about it. I think that anytime you can connect with people on a nostalgic level, you have the potential to hit pay dirt.
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