Overview

Poem Broadside project is a collaboration with San Diego State's Art 342A Typography 2 class and the English and Comparative Literature Department as well as the organization, Poetry International. The goal was to design a successful poster that highlights a poem of our choosing as well as incorporates a conceptual and creative design.

Caliban by: Abena Busia

I chose the poem Caliban by Abena Busia. Busia is a writer, poet, feminist, lecturer and diplomat from Ghana. The poem title references a character from Shakespeare's The Tempest, where Caliban finds himself in a situation where he is enslaved by a colonizer on his own island. In this same relationship with power, Busia talks about feelings of alienation in spaces where one is present but another power keeps them in spaces of being and non-being. Which is true for many people today.

Process

Research

I researched posters for inspiration that exude the same energy as the poem and that have motifs that I wanted to include. I also researched posters that exhibit themes of feelings trapped, as well as type integration, and ones that include darker and moodier imagery.

Sketches

These are early sketches and ideas that I got down in order to explore them further. Initially, I wanted to explore dark imagery as well as motifs of feeling trapped and feelings of suppression. I explored various visual elements including a mouth and tongue, exploring type integrated into the background image, and utilizing chain throughout my composition. I ended up integrating type with the chain in my image.

Iterations

Through my process, I explored other text placement and various color exploration as well. The off-white colored text on the first composition best suited the poster overall. Since I wanted the text to feel part of the background, the off-white complimented the composition better as well as the tracked out type mirrors the chain further reflecting feelings of being bound. The text is also placed on features on a person where language is thought, felt, and expressed.

Components

Typeface

Title (left top): Dense by Charles Daoud

Poem (left bottom) : Univers by Adrian Frutiger

These typefaces were chosen specifically because I wanted something modern and clean without being too heavy. It was also important to me that the type would be able to read easily while being tracked out as well as compliment the subtleness of the bushes in the background.

Background Image

For my image, I wanted to give a sense of a human presence without being too literal, I had taken these images a while ago and thought they would be perfect for this project which I then overlaid on one another. The photo of the shrubbery is a reference to the island that Caliban resides in, in the Tempest, while the shadowy figure is a visual reiteration of the poem's message; depicting a human experience that many face.

Title Element

I bought and photographed chain to incorporate a textural element to my poster. I decided to have the title be bound by the chain to accentuate the feeling of being bound and to represent an absence of power. 

Final Poster