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. 

A Good Rejection

As a graphic designer, illustrator, or artist you will have your share of rejections. 

Cherish the good rejections. "What? But they didn’t like my work and won’t use it!" I know it can be discouraging but a rejection can be used as constructive criticism.

No response doesn’t tell you anything.

Saying that your work is good or bad is uninformative.

But a good rejection will state what they liked about your submission and what didn’t work for their project. It means what you did was good but didn’t fit their vision of their project. That’s ok. You can learn what to improve if it’s for a specific genre and you still have something to add to your portfolio.

A good rejection that includes an offer to recommend you to other clients looking for a graphic designer or artist is also an indication that your work is good and it builds a working relationship and a chance for networking.

Thank the person, company, or organization for considering your work. Again this helps build a working relationship and they will see you as a professional. They will be more inclined to recommend you to other people and maybe they will consider you for a different project in the future. 

The image above is a piece of work I submitted recently for a project that was rejected. They said they liked the color choice and the humor. What they didn’t like was that it was too safe for what they wanted and wasn’t what they envisioned for their project. They also said that they would recommend me to people looking for an illustrator or graphic designer.

This was created in Illustrator based on a couple of sketches.

CFC Christmas Concert

A local singing group, Cascade Foothills Chorale, wanted a poster designed for their winter concert. Their theme was simple, "Christmas!" They wanted images that reflected what this time of year means for a lot of people - food, family, friends.

I found a couple of images on Flickr Commons that I composited to show a family exchanging gifts. One image was in color and the other in black and white that I colorized using Photoshop. The whole poster was created in Photoshop.

Parade Poster

Enumclaw's Christmas parade is going on 50 years. To celebrate this milestone they wanted a special poster that invoked the past, had gold tones, and a celebratory feel to it. I took a photo of the main street that goes through town and photo manipulated it so it looked more like a drawing. This image was used as the background. I used the traditional Christmas colors, green and red, as accents. The focal is a snow globe with gold confetti instead of snow and 50 years prominently displayed inside with the text treated to look like metallic gold.

The photo was manipulated in Photoshop. The rest, including the snow globe, was done in Illustrator.

Recycling and Graphic Design

In online discussions, I've seen people question the reason for retaining the copyright on one's own work. Besides the obvious reason that the work is yours there is the ability to reuse assets. Recycling saves time.

One of my clients sponsors two wine walks a year. Grapes, grape leaves, a wine glass, and sometimes a bottle are used in the posters. Many of these assets I have reused several times which cut down on time and labor. 

When I sat down and thought about this year's Fall poster, I realized I didn't want to have the same look. Sure, I wanted to reuse the assets but wanted a different design. Doing the same thing over and over again can be boring, the passion ebbs, and the work can suffer, get sloppy. This is a dangerous attitude for a designer. If you ever find yourself feeling this way about a design step back from it and Do. Something. Different.  

Everyone represents red wine in wine walk posters including me. Red is a commanding color and can easily be used as a focus. But the wine walks feature red and white wine. Why not use white wine for the poster? Why not white grapes and white wine in the glass? 

What about going for a different appearance? I decided to emulate one of my favorite art styles, Art Nouveau. 

I looked again at images of grape leaves and wine glasses. I especially looked at white grapes and white wine in a glass. And a lot of Art Nouveau posters were perused. 

The wine glass was first used in the Spring Wine Walk poster of 2014, again for the Fall, and again for the following Spring. I liked it quite well and decided to keep it but change the color. 

Note the grapes, grape leaves, and vines in the 2015 Spring poster. These I used in the new poster.

One of the grape leaves I blew up, changed the dark green to more of a yellow green with shading, and added more detail. One grape was copied into the new poster. The red was replaced with a yellow green and the highlight was blurred a little. Then it was saved as a symbol and copied over and over again. 

The wine glass was the most challenging. It needed to be clear yet show there was white wine in the glass. 

A lot of gradients and blurs were used overall in the design. The wine glass, grape leaf and grapes were outlined. A heavier stroke was used on the wine glass to help it stand out. 

The end result was well received. The client said it looked very elegant which is what they especially wanted for this Fall's advertising of the event.