Problem
Many graphic design deliverables are created without much research into the topics and themes they are touching and don’t actually convey great meaning or sensitivity.
Project
Develop a design system for the International Holocaust Film Series creating a logo, a series of posters, and a series of stamps.
Research & Discovery
Over a week we had to spend 5 hours at the New England Holocaust Museum taking pictures and videos, taking note of our observations, and just be present in the space. Because it was the middle of winter in Boston, the steam rising from the memorial was even more impactful and created a very strong visual. I was impacted by all the small and intentional details.
Style Tiles
The first step in the process was to create style tiles using elements of the actual memorial. I used photos I took, watercolor I painted, and the word “remember” handwritten in Arabic . I played around with highlighting an individual aspect out of the masses, for example taking one of the millions of numbers and handwriting it.
Posters v.1
After doing some thumbnail sketches, I took the visual elements I created from the style tiles and the required information about the International Holocaust Film Series to create the first versions of the posters. In each poster I included the small elements that showed the masses affected, like the millions of numbers on the glass structures or field of small stones. I used watercolor I painted and sprinkled salt onto because it highlighted the mimicked the frost on the glass of the memorial
Logo
The last asset I created was the logo. I wanted to create a logo that was delicate like the topic and very intentional like the rest of my project. I continued to work with the “highlighted” aspect I used throughout my style tiles and posters, playing with different outlines and shapes. I eventually settled on outlining the actual text because it showed that individual stories in such a large tragedy could still be brought to light.
Posters v.2
The main improvement I wanted to make for the final version of my posters was my use of white space. The information about the film series was becoming lost in all of the images and watercolor and that is the primary information of the poster. Therefore, I made the typography the focus of the posters and used the assets I had created as a design element to make all posters seem like a system.
Stamps
The last part of this project was creating a series of stamps that fit into the design system I had created throughout the semester. I used the same watercolor with salt to fill in my hand-drawn outline of each country. I wanted to keep the hand-drawn element because it shows that this delicate topic was handled with care and compassion. I also incorporated the official flowers of each country since the film series is about remembrance.
Outcome
I learned how to tackle projects with increased sensitivity and the urge to learn as much as I can about the topic I’m dealing with and the people it will affect. I also further developed my ability to create and develop cohesive design system. I also learned to sometimes step away from the computer and use other mediums to convey a feeling or message. For this project I did a lot of watercolors with salt that I then scanned and imported into illustrator.