Project 2: Visual Hierarchy
Making a poster for Whitney Museum of American Art’s Art History from Home series
Research
My first impression of Whitney Museum is that it’s very modern, from its contemporary architecture (designed by Renzo Piano) to its sleek, graphic website. I learned that it’s located in Manhattan, and focuses on 20th and 21st century American art.
I did attend an Art History from Home event on “Los Tres Grandes and American Art”, and it was a very specific, in-depth, history-heavy lecture on three Mexican muralists who influenced the medium. The target audience for this series is very interested in a specific topic, or just art history enthusiasts in general.
A phrase to describe the event series: A slice of American art history, a taste of the American art legacy
Three adjectives to describe the Whitney Museum: modern, inquisitive, diverse.
Part 1
I printed out the information page and organized the content hierarchy based on what I think is important.
1st: The event name tells people what this poster is all about.
2nd: The lecture topics capture specific audiences, playing a critical in whether people attend.
3rd: Organization that hosts the event; shows integrity as a well-established museum
4th: Tells people how to access; important during COVID
5th: Where to go to sign up or view additional info
6th: Specific lecture dates and times
1 Stroke Weights
Following my content hierarchy organization, I came up with three different variations using stroke weight. All of these highlight the first (event) and second (lecture topics) items on my content hierarchy. Of the three, I like the second one the most, because the event name “Art History from Home” pops out the most. For all three, I used the stroke weights bold and roman.
Using the same hierarchy structure as my favorite from above, I experimented with different stroke weights.
The first one uses medium and light; the second one medium and roman; the third one bold and light. I wanted to see how different the stroke weights need to be to separate information. And how much is too much. I decided that the difference between medium and roman is too subtle to establish hierarchy, and the difference between bold and light is too much contrast.
2 Linespacing
Of the three variations of line spacing, the last one communicates my hierarchy structure the best, as it highlights the event title “Art History from Home” the most out of all three.
3 Horizontal Shift: two flush-left margins
During this exercise, I realized how important negative space is in acting as an entry point. When everything is in a block together, it’s really hard to enter into the page. It’s also interesting how the horizontal shift affects not just the line it’s on, but also the lines above and below it.
4 Horizontal Shift: three flush-left margins
I also realized that the lines that are most flush left might not be the ones people look at first. It depends more heavily on negative space. For this reason, I like the last of three the most, because the negative space in front of “Art History from Home” and “Online, via Zoom” provides a nice entry point. Also, repetition plays a role in grouping same types of info. The lecture topics are consistently flush left by the same margin, telling people they are the same types of info.
In Class Exercise
During class on Tuesday, we combined two different elements together to achieve more flexibility in our design.
For my part 1 final, I chose this version in which I used stroke weight and spacing together to achieve visual hierarchy. I like this one because the lecture topics pop out the most, which is important because the audience are drawn in mostly based on the lecture topics.
I also moved the texts from the top left of the page to the middle of the page. Because the blank space on the left gives viewers an entry point
Takeaways
- Questions to ask when experimenting: What is too much? What is too little? What is just right?
- printing out a physical copy might reveal unexpected problems (readability)
- consider the texture of the whole page — is it too even?
- consider the negative space—is it open & accessible? How does it provide entry/exit points?
- the number of lines grouped together—same number suggests similar content; fewer lines provide more impact
- Composition—is it balanced?
Part 2 — Color & Scale
Color
I used magazine cutouts to experiment with color, and then made some color palettes based on my experiments.
I started with putting color into the typography, to add another layer of hierarchy and to separate information. Out of these I like the first one the best, because “Whitney Museum of American Art” is pushed into the background due to the lower contrast of the mint color. This makes “Art History from Home” pop out more.
Then I started putting color into the backgrounds too. I tried out muted colors for background versus brighter colors. I discovered that the main factor for readability depends on the value contrast.
Scale
I used both paper cutout technique and digital to play around with the placement of the texts and change their font size.
Out of everything, I like these two the best because I think they highlight the lecture topics effectively and have a balance of text and negative space.
Translating to digital, I had to decrease some of the font sizes.
Main takeaways from class crit: I’m not being bold and experimental enough with scale. Some of the type arrangements don’t look intentional enough.
Switching to 11x17", I realized I had a lot more vertical space to play with, and decided to rethink my composition.
I experimented with a wider variety of type sizes. I also implemented a 12-column grid system, which really helped me align things and implement some structure. I struggled a lot with flipping the hierarchy between event title and lecture topics, mainly because the lecture topics become lengthy texts that fill up the page when enlarged. This is especially apparent in the middle iteration, which looks too busy. In the end I decided to mainly use the left-most iteration for the next part of the project as it allows for more space for imagery.
Printing these scale exercise out and putting them on a wall helped me see better the characteristics of these three different compositions.
Combining scale & color
The primary color palette reminds me too much of Southwest airlines brand, so I discarded the palette. I tried limiting my color choices, and I quite like the 3rd and 4th turned out. They give off really different vibes due to the dark versus light background.
Part 3 — Imagery
For imagery, I wanted to try using both paintings by artists featured in the lecture series and photos that would fit my poster. After finding some images that fit, I started experimenting with different ways of cropping.
When putting in the text, I found that I have to make a lot of changes to my original text layout to accommodate or respond to these images.
I also tried out more graphic approaches, highlighting the texts instead of images.
I really like the sharp vibes of these pure black background, which make the posters feel more modern and appeal to a younger audience. My main concern with these more graphic approaches is that they don’t tell the viewer enough about what kind of event they’re promoting. A balance between context and modern-look would be the top left iteration, where the artwork of one of the artists featured shows through the letter “A”.
For class crit, I picked ones I thought were more successful and show a variety of what I explored.
Feedback (Tue 11.17):
- Left two are too dull
- 3rd from the left: puts too much emphasis on the “A”; should try using same effect on the whole title
- 4th from the left: nice colors; Footings get lost in the image
- 5th from the left: “Art History from Home” leading can be decreased; play around with which words go on which lines; title grey too dull, can implement image inside text
- How to activate the edge of the page? How to effectively break the grid? Would this communicate a relevant message to the subject matter?
Part 4 — Poster
I revised my previous posters and played around with new compositions. Top left: breaking the margins & making “Art History from Home” more condensed. Top right: pushing typographic scale hierarchy more and adding highlight color. Bottom left: bringing colors from the artwork into the type and background. Bottom right: new composition; playing around with type placements.
For my final, I decided to go with the top left one. Because I like its type hierarchy the most and usage of imagery to inform context.
