This poster was inspired by Heinz Edelmann’s style in Yellow Submarine. I love the variety of art styles he uses throughout the movie to maintain the audience’s attention and portray the vibrant energy of the music. I also admire how many colors he is able to use while still maintaining an emphasis on the subject and an overall sense of cohesiveness throughout the story. I tried to imitate this use of multiple styles and colors in my poster, while telling my own story.
This poster portrays the tendency for issues such as animal testing to become buried beneath flashy and fun advertising, specifically in the cosmetic industry. In this poster's fictional world, assembly workers carve cubes from animals to create sacred products for oppressive makeup gods.
Scroll down to check out my process!
Process
The original storyline for this piece was more complex, but I tried to visually condense it as much as possible in order to meet the project’s due date. After condensing it, I found that a vertical composition fit the piece best. Having it presented vertically creates a sense of impending judgment, while placing the viewer at the level of the assembly line workers. I thought this was important since many of us unintentionally play some part in allowing cosmetic animal testing to persist for the sake of beauty and hygiene. I printed this as a 12ft. tall poster for my presentation.
Brainstorming Sketches: Top left shows transition from bunny to cube to lipstick. Bottom right shows a few iterations of the makeup gods.
Rough storyboard for the initial horizontal composition. I divided the storyboard for easy viewing here, but the initial composition was going to be one continuous horizontal poster portraying the story of an assembly worker who rescues a giant bunny from being used for makeup cubes by giving the bunny a cube of him/herself. One night while hiding from the makeup gods, a mysterious, magical cube descends from the starry sky, allowing the duo to finally defeat the makeup gods.
The bleak assembly line is in stark contrast to the overwhelming amount of color in the makeup gods and ads above them.
One of my favorite ads from this piece.
To add some grungier elements, I took photos of my own makeup and used the image trace tool in illustrator. Simple gradients helped restore some of the gloss and depth that was lost.
The Cubes: Subtle rainbow gradients hint at the cubes' color potential for makeup, while low saturation helps them stand out against the colorful, busy background of makeup ads. The low saturation also connects them to the white animals at the bottom of the poster.
Loola Lips: She runs the show with elegance and pizzazz. She's the embodiment of fabulous and easily shakes the room with her booming yet charming laughter. Her communication skills are divinely influential. It's a shame she's so evil.
Henchmen Twins: Though technically gods, these two act more as surveillance over the assembly workers. They never talk back to their mouthy sister, but they do shoot some intense death glares.
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