A Poster with an Art Nouveau Flair

The latest poster I did for the Enumclaw Chamber of Commerce was inspired by Art Nouveau. Rich color; curves and fluid lines, and a lot of gradients are some of the hallmarks of Art Nouveau. Some of the lines are very reminiscent of Celtic Art. There are details and shading in objects which are sparingly outlined. 

Sometimes I start with a sketch, scan it, and use it as a basis for my drawing.

This is the sketch I used for the Spring Wine Walk poster. 

The woman, her face, hair and hand holding the wine glass are detailed. The grapes and grape leaves are lightly drawn in because I already had grapes and grape leaves created in Illustrator. Basically, the light sketch of both are place holders giving an idea of where they will be placed within the design.

I often reuse assets for posters operating with the philosophy of “why recreate the wheel”. Colors might change and some of the shape might change. 

For the comp, I used my own hand as a model.

The grapes I got from the Fall Wine Walk poster, changed the color from white grapes to red grapes and saved them as a symbol in Illustrator. 

I found a beautiful font from Dafont.com that was designed just for the Art Nouveau style.

The comp was sent to the Chamber committee who wanted, after review, more color.

The final poster.