Part 4 Exercise 2: Museum posters

 During my museum visit, I took pictures of a few of the exhibits, I went to the dinosaur and endangered species part, and I was a little disappointed that there weren’t many things to choose from, I wanted to use dinosaurs for the children’s poster as they are quite popular but there was only 2 skeletons and a model of another dinosaur in that whole section. The endangered species had some good displays, but the most full and interesting exhibit was the Egyptian floor, there were so many artefacts and objects to use for reference. There was a Mummy room with mummies and sarcophagi’s, plenty of statues and trinkets throughout. I mainly focused on the Egyptian theme for all audiences because the other floors didn’t have as much going on and that seemed to be a main attraction at the World Museum.

 Endangered animasl/planet

 Dinosaur Section

Egyptian Exhibit

 

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I only made one little illsutration of a dinosaur skeleton on one of the visuals however I didn’t take a good enough angle of the Albertasaurus, so I had to find one on google and use that for a clearer image. Because I didn’t gather enough or worthy photos, I made each poster Egyptian themed.

The number of things within the Egyptian exhibit meant I had a lot of objects to chose from, I utilized the colours and the patterns on the wall. The were a few larger wall images that I took inspiration from especially these two:

 

The wall drawing, I ended up using for the teenage poster however I also had to use google to get a similar type because the on in the museum had a text box and odd lighting. 

The sarcophagus was also used in one of the children’s visuals next to a friendly mummy which relates to what they were used for and what was in the museum.

Creating the visuals was fun, I liked deciding what objects and colours would express Egypt to different audiences. The adult I felt could have a more serious tone or possibly a bit of humour hence the strange pot face but still include enough colour to be noticeable. The children’s poster I added a friendly cartoon mummy to get their imagination going, it gives a bit of fun approach and takes such a morbid concept out of the exhibit. The dinosaur skeleton I wanted to use because kids today seem to have a fascination with dinosaurs and a bold skeleton would likely grab their attention. Finally, the teenage posters. I thought the pot was a good idea again because it promotes a bit of humour and having a speech bubble makes it a bit more relatable if there’s so modern text or something teenagers would say. Something that might intrigue them like “you mean you haven’t seen the Egyptian in the museum yet?” In addition to this a QR code would be a good way to grab attention as now a days teenagers spend a lot of time on phones and the idea of the scan feature could be to translate some hieroglyphics on the poster. The other design for the teenage poster was an Anubis simply because it is a cool looking statue and people love animals, with a background of the pyramids to make sure the idea of Egypt is there. I suppose the code could be used for all it would just depend on who would take the time to. Following the Egyptian theme, I made sure all the backgrounds had a geographical location or an association with Egypt and playing around with title compositions.

 The mind maps were ways to write down elements of each generation and their requirements. A way in which I made sure people knew where the posters were from was adding the nationally history museum logo in the corner big enough to see from a short distance. I’m sure text added would also need to be just big enough that it makes someone go “hmm let’s see what that’s advertising”

These re the steps I took to make this final teenage poster. The background of maroon was a more intense attempt a creating a similar colour to the walls you’d see ancient drawing and writing on but instead made darker so the pot could be the focus. Firstly, though I sketched out the pot and its face, roughly adding some tones and colour before full applying details and smoother textures. Cleaning up the lines I then used a colour changing tool where I could change brightness, contrast, gradient until I found the shade and tone I wanted. I kept the colour of the pot warm in the end after having a little go at a cooler colour. I did one with a speech bubble and one without but kept the logo, so it was clear where’s being advertised. I think its important to include some inkling of a location being advertised if it wasn’t for the logo the picture would just be random and no one would know where to go if it wasn’t inside the museum. But if it was in the museum, I think it could be placed near the entrance or on the Egyptian floor as a reminded before heading into the exhibit like a warm light-hearted welcome maybe saying “come and visit this face”. The pot also being feature on the poster makes it more exciting because there is a display where it sits. Overall, the background really helps get across the message of this poster, without it would just be a random broken pot with a weird face and know context, the background also doesn’t outshine the pot it just helps with the context. The warm colours I think makes something more approachable, the silly face also has a sense of welcoming and again relating back to phones things like “memes” are based around weird faces so It’s a very modern take on an ancient artefact and I’m glad at how it turned out.

I thought to make finish of this final poster design its only right I should include relatable text that has a clear and friendly message, slight bit of humour may help attract younger people too. For the typeface a chose a clean more modern text as to add a bit of contrast to the theme of it being an ancient exhibit with old illustration and background. In order to fit all the text I also had to make the speech bubble a lot bigger and the fact it goes off the page but its not enough to not look like a speech bubble.