In this exercise I am asked to produce a series of A3 poster illustrations to publicise a museum for the following audiences:  child (age 5-9), teenager (13-16), and the general adult audience.  The museum wants to encourage diverse sections of the population to visit and perceive it as a place of interest.  Select one object for each audience and create an image centred around that object which you think best presents it to your market.

1.  Brainstorming with a spider diagram and moodboards

The first thing I did was search the internet to get an idea of all the types of museums and think back to museums I had already attended in the past.  It was a profound experience to visit the Van Gogh Museum back in the nineties, and I was curious to see what it looks like today.  Well, they made it even better by creating a spectacular sunflower labyrinth to mark the opening of the Van Gogh Museum’s new entrance hall in 2015. 

I began my online search and went down memory lane to relive all the incredible artworks I have seen.  The museum is temporarily closed due to Covid, but there are many online resources.  As a young student I studied Van Gogh’s painting The Potato Eaters, Sunflowers and The Bedroom in books.  I remember seeing the artworks in real life, and it is a very different experience compared to seeing it in books.  This sparked the idea for the narrative: “See it in real life”.  The desire to “see it in real life” is the context in which we find ourselves today.  We are confined to seeing these artworks online for now, but people would like to see it in real life when things start going back to normal.

I catalogued ideas for objects I could use for each age category and looked at the artworks in the museum, the labyrinth outside the museum and objects in the gift shop.  Objects that caught my attention for the children group was a kaleidoscope, the Play Mobile characters, sunflowers, the labyrinths, Lego, and artist’s work inspired by Van Gogh to represent his work.  Van Gogh kept a journal, and some of his writings were very motivational.  Using his words as a motivational quote for the teenage poster was one idea.  Objects for the teenage poster could also be Lego art which looks like pixelated art, Vincent van Gogh’s paintings The Bedroom (1888) and Tree Roots (1890) and possibly The Potato Eaters (1885), together with motivational quotes.  Object ideas for the adult group could be Sunflowers (1889) repetition of the 4^th version (yellow background) by Vincent van Gogh.  I also liked Old man drinking coffee (1882) together with the narrative of working steady office hours.  Laundry nights by Sarah Marwan can also work as an idea for a poster if paired with Van Gogh painting The Starry Night (1889).

Further, I researched children poster ideas and navigated through the book Making Posters by Scott Laserowand Natalia Degado and Lettering Manual by Ken Barber.  I would like to create a vintage feel for these posters by doing hand lettering as the typography.  Hand lettering has a handcrafted charm and will be ideal for creating a retro/vintage mood for these three posters.  

The three posters should flow together, and it should be clear to the audience that all three posters are from the same museum.  Every time they see another poster, it should tell the viewer more about the museum.  My approach to keeping these three posters cohesive and visually belonging to the same family is to keep the typography the same, have the same catchphrase and have a visual element that ties them all together.  The colour can be different, as long as it flows when viewed next to each other.  After exploring a few options, I realised that I want to collage Van Gogh’s art into a modern-day setting to bring the past and present together and make it relatable to the audience. In my sketchbook I have drawn ideas and then made photocopies and collaged it together with Van Gogh’s paintings to work out composition and scale.  I sketched the lettering by drawing guides in my sketchbook and then using a pencil and eraser to sketch the letters.  I made photocopies of the lettering to experiment with scale, tonal value and composition.

2.  Rendering the final posters

After careful consideration, I have decided to render the posters digitally by scanning my finished drawings into Photoshop.  I have collected textures while I was on holiday and have made my own stencils and brushes in Photoshop.  I want to try these brushes to create an old-world texture.

First, I converted the texture photo into greyscale and layered textures together, then made it into a brush.  I will call it a stencil because you can’t really paint with this brush, but would rather click it once or twice to get the desired effect.  With one click into a “reveal all” mask connected to my image, I am creating a texture mask over my image, creating a fine texture and a vintage look to the picture.  (See figure 10 and 11)

3.  The finished posters

I have used the kaleidoscope idea for the children poster and included segments of what you will see when looking through a kaleidoscope. 

The segments are Van Gogh paintings, a sunflower, random lettering texture as a child would see it, and the catchphrase reading, “See it in real life”.  I have used bright colours against a cardboard background to make the colours pop even more.

I have used the Sunflower painting for the teenager poster.  The teenager is looking at her iPad and then at the actual painting against the wall to illustrate the narrative, “See it in real life”.  I used more dramatic colours and tones to offset the bright yellow sunflower painting and the teenager in the foreground.

Finally, for the adult poster, I have chosen a man reading a newspaper and having coffee with Van Gogh’s character from Old man drinking coffee (1882).  This illustrates that the man with the newspaper can see the Van Gogh artwork in real life right in front of him.  I used newspaper textures and colours to compliment the illustration.

In conclusion, I have used the same typography for all three posters and the same catchphrase, “See it in real life”.  The border is the visual element in each illustration that ties the three posters together.  The idea was to bring the past and present together with the narrative of seeing the authentic artwork at the museum and promoting the museum to a diverse population in modern-day life.