saul bass influence poster

Kendall Santos' Little 500 Poster
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For this project, I had difficulty finding an influence. I don’t have a favorite designer or know of any. I looked up graphic designers and came across Saul Bass. I had heard of that name and when I looked at his work, I recognized a lot of it. He designed one of my favorite movie posters, West Side Story. I really like how simple yet effective his work is and how it has some darkness to it. When finding an influence, I also wanted to find an influence that would match my level of design. I didn’t want to do one that was very intricate, so I thought Saul Bass would be a good influence.

When starting I had no idea what I wanted to do, I looked at all of Bass’ work to try and get some inspiration. I came across the posters for “Anatomy of a Human Murder” and “The Human Factor” and took inspiration from them. I liked how simple they were with just one image and the words not center. I wanted to draw a simple bike that didn’t have much detail, almost like it was cut out of paper. I chose red because most of Saul’s work uses red in the background and black and white for the pictures. The type I used was FilmotypeMaxwell, this was the most Saul Bass font I could find on Adobe. I would say most of his work is noticeable by the font he uses. I wanted to make sure I found the right font.

Overall, I think I did a good job capturing Saul Bass’s influence. I think there is still room to improve, but I do think my graphic design skills are improving. I did enjoy the final product, and I will say it was a challenge to not take one of his posters and just use that one and make it Little 500. I enjoyed this project, I thought it was fun to look at famous designers and make a poster of our own with their influence.

Otl Aicher Influenced Little 500 Poster

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For this poster, I struggled with finding a designer. I was attempting to discover artists that I knew I would be able to take influence from as well as be within my skill as a designer. As my graphic design career was blooming, I had watched a design video about thresholds and working with layering them. I had worked on a personal project a few months prior where I worked on thresholds. As I was deciding who to design, I found Otl Aichers 1972 Olympic designs. This solidified my influence of choice due to the fact that I knew I would be able to take influence and create a design in my own style that was similar to his work. At the time I was designing a lot of musical posters and I had designed the poster below.

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With designing the poster on the right, and utilizing layering of thresholds, I knew that I would be able to recreate an Aicher style design. The process for my Aicher Influence went smoothly and the only thing I really struggled with was my ability to determine color scheme. I researched Aicher’s full designs and I did not notice any that were dominantly purple. This gave me the idea to chose this color. With my background color in choice I moved onto my layers for thresholds. I began with selecting the lowlights with appear as the forest green on the riders. I moved onto the highlights which are represented in the slime-like green on the riders. I struggled with finding colors that worked together so I opened Illustrator and utilized their color palette and the recommendations that they offer.

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After I finished the layering of my hero image, I had the bikers and their respective colors on a plain purple background. I was lost on what to do as I had used the selection tool to grab each rider and placed them on an empty image. I went back to my main image and decided to remove the riders from the image and take another shot at thresholding the track itself similar to the design to the left. I got the design placed behind the riders and it made a major difference. I played around with color and it did not make any sense to add color because it washed away the riders and did not blend well due to it not being a compliment of purple. If my background color was similar to the design on the left I think I would have been able to do something similar but I wanted to do something that was my style rather than taking his design and recreating it. Lastly I decided to take my main text at the top and I chose to do a dark style similar to the design on the left. I originally had all of the text white, but I asked my roommate and a few friends which one they preferred and they all said the darker purple made the most sense. I am extremely pleased with my final design as I think I did a wonderful job of taking influence from Aicher yet making it still my own work.

Zane Sanders- Influence Project (April Greiman)

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For my influence project, I took inspiration from famous New Wave graphic designer April Greiman. When I was first researching her work, I listed out a lot of things that I found to be mostly consistent in her style: halftone gradients, geometric shapes, layers and playing with opacity, photographic elements, and sans serif fonts. Additionally, in class, we learned that a lot of her style is the result of being one of the first people to integrate technology into their work and whenever that technology made a mistake, she would integrate it into the work.

At first when starting, I had no idea where to start but once I saw the work her WET Magazine cover, I had my main inspiration in putting a centered person to be the main focus. I also knew from the start that I wanted to use the layered 3D text for the “Little 500” font just as she does in the poster below my design. Sticking with the Little 500 theme, I knew stripes would be something that I wanted to use to show speed and also just a lot of uniforms have stripes on them in the race. That paired with tilting my typography as well as the stripes in the bottom with the text on them conveys the speed that I was looking for as well as fit into April’s style of slanted text in some of her work.

Below the stripes, is a checkered flag which since it is a bike race, fits the theme. I added a gradient on it too because April works a lot with gradients and images with a gradient. On the right, is a large circle with a halftone gradient as well, which again is representative of April’s halftone shape and gradient work that is often see in her designs. I also made it a circle because in my mind, it sort of represents a bike wheel which is also a circle. Lastly, the two shapes at the top of the poster are layered over each other with the opacity lowered as April likes to layer and play with opacity as stated earlier. The left shape is a geometric shape that I feel like April might use in her work but the shape on the left, is representative of the podium for first, second, and third in the race just flipped upside down.

Lastly, the middle and background are what I struggled the most with in this project in trying to make it them both look right and cohesive as well as reflective of my influence. For the main middle shape, I traced the IU Student Foundation logo which sponsors the race but, I made it into one shape and did not color it as to distinguish it from any official logos. I then added layered squares around it like is also seen in the WET cover but put my own spin on it in color and placement and layering with the main shape. I added a halftone gradient on the main shape to make it stand out more too. Finally, the photo in the middle is turned into a half tone color image but, I am not sure I love the way it turned out and maybe should’ve made the dots smaller. I covered the eyes of the biker as April has done in her works as well as put the actual bike on top to show the significance of the race. April also likes to use little photographic elements in her work too so I think that turned out nicely. The background was a struggle until I realized in some of her work, she likes to use a paint splatter texture in the background so that is also what I chose to do instead of a solid color or another halftone gradient which might blend in with the circle and main shapes.

Overall I feel that I represented the style well and while some aspects could be improved, I like the overall way it turned out however, when doing an influence project like this, it is hard to not compare yourself to the graphic designer and I had to continuously remind myself throughout the process, and even now, that April is a known, professional graphic designer who has spent decades designing in her own style and this is only my second graphic design class so it was okay for my work to not be perfect.

Image of April Greiman’s “Your Turn My Turn” poster

AUSTIN ~ INFLUENCE PROJECT

I enjoyed working on this project a lot, and I liked the concept of designing something that could be a professional project for IU’s campus. I worked for the past two and a half years with the Vice Provost Office on their marketing and communications team, which mostly looked like creating different social media engagement content for the undergraduate student body. What I particularly liked about this project was that it closely resembled something I would have been assigned during my internship. I liked the creative freedom we had, but I also liked how it was constrained by the influence we needed to choose and copy their design style.  

This is a sample photo of my poster.
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Otl Aicher, Designer Exhibition

My influence was Otl Aicher, a German graphic designer. Aicher is best known for his graphics work for the Munich 1972 Olympics; however, he is also known for his corporate identity designs, including projects for companies such as Lufthansa and Braun. Throughout his career, Aicher’s design focused on creating designs that were both functional and aesthetic. Keeping a strong “Swiss Style” throughout his design work, he emphasizes clarity, simplicity, and readability through clean lines, bold colors, and an overall minimalist design. It was these identified elements that I tried to replicate throughout my poster design. I focused a lot on one of Aicher’s exhibition designs, which includes a wide range of black and white graphics. One of the first things I noticed throughout these designs was the repetitive geometric shapes and designs, as well as the bold black lines spaced across his work. Aicher seems to create a rhythm with geometric shapes that are seamless throughout his compositions and successfully paint an impactful scene. Even with the minimalism of what is included within his designs, Aicher’s work carries a powerful voice. Beyond this, Aicher also adds a lot of dots or lines to give texture to the shapes that he uses. I tried to copy these design choices through my simplistic geometric inclusion at the top of my poster, which created a frame around the cyclist as well as giving it some texture and the interesting quality of turning some into dotted lines. I also wanted to include the simple bold lines, like Aicher using them to frame as well as put emphasis on the event’s information.

Otl Aicher, Graphic Designer Olympic Poster Design

Otl Aicher’s designs also tend to keep to a few simple but bold colors. As seen in his work with the Olympics, he focuses on a bold green color but then uses different shades and tones to create contrast and visual interest. I wanted to emulate this design choice throughout my work, but I also wanted to reflect the spirit of the Little 500 scene. I chose to restrict my color scheme to black and red because it copies Aicher’s design choice while also giving some symbolism to a race flag. In addition, the red color follows the university’s color choices, which adds to the theme of the event. Finally, looking at Aicher’s work, you will see a very simple type is used throughout all his graphics. I wanted to choose a sans-serif font that would remain simplistic and copy the heart of Aicher’s designs while also carrying weight and standing out from the geometric-shaped art behind it. Looking back at the project, I would say the biggest challenge I came across was finding the balance between copying the style of my influence’s designs while also remaining independent and creating my authentic work. It is easy to just copy element for element and apply it to the theme of the Little 500 event. However, it became more difficult to take apart Aicher’s design, understand the meaning and reason behind each of his design choices, and apply his style to my design work trying to stay unique and also remaining specific to the Little 500 event and Indiana University’s brand. This process required a deep dive into Aicher’s design principles and a lot of trial and error, as I had to completely scrap and redesign my poster at least three or four times to ensure that my final product was a true reflection of his style while still being original. It was a challenging but ultimately a rewarding experience that helped me grow as a designer.

Little 500 – John Alvin

This is one of my versions of a Little 500 poster inspired by the graphic designer and artist John Alvin. When going into this project, I knew I wanted to choose an artist that would challenge me. I love movie poster and theatrical poster design, and I wanted to choose an artist whose style I liked but have never tried. John Alvin came to mind because he created come of my favorite movie posters, specifically the renaissance Disney posters such as “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast”.

There were a few aspects of Alvin’s designs that stood out to me when looking over his portfolio. I noticed much, if not all of his work, was very art based. Many of his posters seem either illustrated or even painted. I feel that he paved the way, in a sense, for the stereotypical Marvel “floating head” poster since many of his work includes the busts of characters/actors, as can be seen in his “Batman Forever” poster. Additionally, his designs often feature centered type and imagery, as well as vignettes and darker silhouettes. I wanted to use these ideas in my posters and it lead me to my person favorite, which can be seen above.

Initially, I tried a more artistic approach and drew a bike in procreate that I used for different renderings. I felt not entirely satisfied with my first few attempts, so I tried to approach the Little 500 poster as if it was an action movie like the one’s Alvin designed for. I found Adobe stock images of cyclists and used the Filter Gallery and “posterize” feature to make the stock images more artistic. I added a vignette to the sides to make it seem dramatic and put textures on the background because many of Alvin’s designs had a lot of artistic detail in the background. This influence was definitely a challenge for me, but I feel like I learned a lot through this project especially.

Armin Hofmann Influence Poster – Regan Mathies

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For the influence poster project, I used Armin Hofmann as inspiration for my Little 500 advertisement. Hofmann’s design style encompasses a unique blend of photographic simplicity and typography. More specifically, Hofmann’s designs capture grainy photos that emphasize the ability of visual resolutions and how they can affect the design’s overall appearance. His design style aims to create complex compositions yet allow them to be simplistic and abstract simultaneously. Furthermore, Hofmann was a significant influence on the design style referred to as the “Swiss Style”. His goal was to use his abilities to represent underlying messages of social and cultural issues, along with their values. Overall, I found his work very inspiring and unique for the direction I wanted to take my poster. His design style allowed me to create a Little 500 advertisement that was dramatic and minimalistic at the same time, which I believe helped me achieve the intended feel. 

The direction of my overall design concept was driven by Hofmann’s iconic black-and-white palette and his embrace of low visual resolution to evoke a sense of dramatics. For starters, I used the Adobe Illustrator program to craft a minimalist depiction of a cyclist, intending to create a balance between simplicity and visual interest. I integrated this illustration into my project by using Photoshop modifications. Tools such as motion blur, graphic pen textures, line halftones, and levels allowed me to achieve this intended look. To ensure there was seamless integration with the poster’s black background, I used a mask layer to blend the sharp edges of the cyclist, achieving a cohesive composition. 

Following this, I found a font style that is reminiscent of the bold, minimalist typography that Hofmann integrates into a variety of his designs. More specifically, Hofmann’s typographic choices resign in the sans serif genre, with larger width and lack of intricate details. Furthermore, his typography reflects the manipulation of spacing and line heights for added detail and impact. To adapt to this design style for my design, I noticed that I had a large amount of space towards the lower section of the poster. Due to this, I opted to place the primary text within this region. Additionally, I decided to vertically orient the “500”, which mirrors Hofmann’s unconventional approach to text placement. I also manipulated the text “little” in Adobe Illustrator to manually experiment with kerning and aligned the primary text closely to the margins, both to reflect his attention to typographic spacing. Lastly, I decided to create visual contrast in the typography by using various opacity levels, enhancing the type’s visual emphasis. 

Regarding the layout of the secondary information in my design, I strategically grouped related information for coherence. By using varying opacities within the text, I prioritized emphasis on the headers with the following information being of less visual emphasis. Ultimately, I positioned this information in the top left corner of my design to utilize the black background for effortless readability.

Overall, I feel like my poster demonstrates a solid effort to embody Hofmann’s design style: however, I want to also acknowledge that I feel it does not showcase my design skills to my full potential.  Despite being aware of my decision decisions and why I wanted to make them, I was not entirely pleased with my overall execution. With this being said, I was able to challenge myself by stepping out of my comfort zone and approaching this project with a different perspective of design. The project as a whole emphasized the importance of adapting to the preferences and styles of clients rather than personal aesthetics; therefore, while this project may not have met my expectations, I have learned its importance which will help me in my future in the field of graphic design. 

Armin Hofmann’s Designs :