For my Constructivist poster I chose to address the decriminalization of marijuana in BC by creating a mock poster for the organization Sensible BC. I felt the subject would be a nice companion to my ready-made, plus with legalization of recreational marijuana in Washington and Colorado and the contemporary discussion around medical marijuana, I felt it was an increasingly relevant topic.
During my research I discovered interesting information about the plant, its history, its global legality and statistics concerning its usage in Western countries. I summarized my research into key facts weighing the costs of current legal practices versus benefits of decriminalizing marijuana. I wanted to appeal to the rational, factual elements of the issue and avoid discussing the plant or the culture that surrounds it.
In my thumbnails, I experimented with various layouts, imagery and content. I felt the first two options were too text heavy, and that the imagery was either irrelevant or too complex to have immediate impact. I felt the last design was the strongest: it had the vertical dynamism of Constructivism, simple but strongly communicated imagery, and plenty of space and variety for text. My final version retains similarities to my thumbnail, but through the process of actually creating the poster I was able to make important changes that improved the balance, energy and visual impact.
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| Clockwise from top left: El Lissitzky "Architecture of VKhUTEMAS" (1927), M. Dlugach "The third lottery of SPAJ" (1930), Gustav Klutsis "Let's Create Great Works" (1930), Gustav Klutsis "Under the Banner of Lenin for Socialist Construction" (1930). |
For my mood board I selected posters that shared similar imagery, composition and copy layout that I wanted to achieve with my poster. I used the colours in my images as the basis for the colour in my piece. I also selected a variety of fonts (fat, tall, square, geometric) that mimicked constructivist styles to be used in my poster. Finally I included the images I would use in the final product.
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