The task for this exercise was to create a poster for a given artist, designer or creative who has had an impact on American culture. My assigned artist was photographer Annie Leibovitz. Leibovitz is a famous Portrait photographer most known for her work with celebrities
After I finished researching Leibovitz and her work it was time for me to start brainstorming. I immediately knew that I wanted to incorporate her affinity for black and white photography in my poster. So I sketched am initial idea of what I wanted to do. After giving it some thought I came to the conclusion that it was a bit too busy when compared to her work and scratched the idea.
Instead of making the letters for her name from magazine cut outs I decided to cut it out from the Times New Roman font.
With the letters cut out I spelled her name across a sheet of cyanotype paper. I decided to use cyanotype because it is a form of photography and it’s the best way to connect to Leibovitz work without using photos directly.
After setting the paper in the sun with the letters on top I had to quickly move the paper into water to stop the exposure and set in the name. After taking it out of the water the paper had to be left to dry.
After drying the final product wasn’t as pronounced as I would have liked. So I took a photo of the poster and began editing it in light room. First I turned saturation down completely to change the color from blue to black and white. From there I turned up contrast and clarity to make the name stand out better and added a slight vignette
After finishing the touch ups I added the subhead, bio and journalism department logo and my finished product was good to go.
