Abstract
Todays task was to draft a poster in black and white about the word „Stille“ english for „silence“ or „quiet“). We were dedicated to use only one font family with multiple typefaces, so we choose: Roboto. Hence we are working with fonts and want to create a poster our tool of choice was InDesign.
| Tools | Adobe CC InDesign (Christoph) – Adobe CC Illustrator + Adobe CC InDesign (Christina) |
| Timing | 1:30 hours |
| Date | 16.03.2023 |
| Participants | Christoph & Christina |
| Deliverables | 1 poster, black/white, Roboto (font) |
Initial ideas and skribbles
… from Christoph
… from Christina
The 2 poster attempts with very different concepts
… from Christoph
Christoph: „As a researcher by heart, I started my work by understanding the task better: What is »silence«. What does it mean? What does it imply? I looked up the word in our German dictionary, the »Duden«, in English dictionaries and typed the word in image search engines. To sum it up in short: At first, it has to do with the absence, mainly the absence of any noise. But furthermore, it has an almost freeing, cathartic feeling to itself. As I had understood this, I started with my first draft ideas.
As always, I generate a lot in a short time to then find out, which approach I want to follow. This time, I had two extremes: One extreme was to use the word »Stille« itself very reduced on a big white canvas. On the other hand, I played around with the idea to literally put noise on a the page by using the word »Stille« in a bold repetitive pattern.
What then came into my mind was the noise someone is making, in order to provoke silence, the »shhh« or »psst«. Contradictory in itself, to make noise in order to cause the opposite of it, isn’t it? Therefore, I combined the idea of using one of these exclamations with the definition of the word »Stille«.
Time on this exercise was running fast, so I ended up with an idea I could put into realization, but to do a final polish on it. Nevertheless, I was happy with rough idea and how it resulted in a poster artwork like this.“
I do like Christophs onomatopoeic approach very much. Also the rythm of font weights light and bold as well as the variety of typefaces from italic to regular are stimulating a graphic designers eye.
Christina
… from Christina
Christina: „There are a lot of words, terms and phrases out there which are a consitent noise in most our lives. Everything around us seems to be just there to get our attention. All of the topics wanted to get understood and then prioritized. And while it is easy to get overwhelmed by so many different topics, humans are existing only in an ecosystem of variable attentionseekers. But to sort our our thoughts, research about only one topic, it is needed to say »be quiet (for) now« to other topics.
While designing I was asking myself, what are some of the term that are used by populist, got constantly interpreted by extremists or got overused:
1,5 Grad ‧ Arbeitslosigkeit ‧ Ukraine ‧ Altersarmut ‧ Management ‧ Männerdominiert ‧ Digitalisierung ‧ Consulting ‧ Powerfrauen ‧ Alte weiße Menschen ‧ Strukturell ‧ Generationenkonflikt ‧ Artensterben ‧ Social Media ‧ Zoos ‧ Autos ‧ Abwrackprämie ‧ Seltene Erden ‧ Russland ‧ China ‧ Amerika ‧ Afrika ‧ Europa ‧ Autos ‧ Parken ‧ Filter ‧ Beauty-Standard ‧ Hunger ‧ Not ‧ Polkappe ‧ Tourismus ‧ Rekordsommer ‧ Sicherheitskonferenz ‧ Klimakleber ‧ Massentierhaltung ‧ Metaverse ‧ Flugtaxix ‧ Artificial Intelligence ‧ Mietpreisbrems ‧ Aktienhandel ‧ Dividenden ‧ Corona ‧ Wet markets ‧ Buschfleisch ‧ Flugzeuge ‧ Urlaub ‧ Radikal ‧ Angst ‧ Trauer ‧ Verlust ‧ Perspektiven ‧ Zukunft ‧ Zukunft ‧ Zukunft! ‧ Zukunft? ‧ Zukunft…
While it is easy to get overwhelmed, scared about our future and feel paralyzed, it is no excuse to do nothing. So my message, I would like to share with the poster is: if you care about (your) future, shut up the noise around you, to focus on doing something that matters (to you). Therefore you might need to shout sometimes: shut up.„
Christinas approach is literally shouting in someones face. But in a contemplative way. It makes you think. It makes you truly confront with this topic. Which is good. Looking at this poster, I think you can relate pretty quickly with the thought, that so many things are grabbing our attention, draining our energy. And that from time to time, we have to say, shut up, in order to protect ourselves, in order to focus on what is necessary. From a stylistic point of view, I like that it’s white text on black ground, which makes the topic a bit more serious, „dark“. The way Christina put the exclamation over the buzzwords like a megaphone is a great way to play with font in order to create (more) meaning.
Christoph
Outtakes
… from Christoph
… from Christina
©Christina (2023)
Conclusion
Since many years now, we were thinking about contributing to the art contest called »Mut zur Wut«. We never had the time, the compelling ideas, or the guts. But now is the time. After this challenge, we took some more time to give ourselves feedback in order to improve our concepts. This will lead in minor re-works and fine-tunings. Please stay posted as we might post our final versions of our posters here, since we handed them in.
In case you do have own ideas and you are brave enough to create a poster about your courage to anger (German: „Mut zur Wut), between 01.03. – 30.04.2023 you can upload your own poster at www.mutzurwut.com