This project was to design an info graphic poster to submit to The One Club: Justice By Design college competition. My info graphic had to be for one of the three topics that The One Club provided: Poverty and Small Business Development, Guantanamo by the Numbers, or The Global Refugee Crisis. Below is a link for the competition brief that I was given.
This first step in creating my poster was to research each topic and see which one I wanted to do my poster on. Thankfully, The One Club provided a PDF that contained the information we would need for each topic, however, we were not limited to the information provided. After looking through the data provided and surfing the Internet more background information, I decided that I wanted to do my poster for Guantanamo. Once I picked my topic I looked up tips on how to go about creating an info graphic poster because this was not something I was familiar with doing. After doing some research I found that the easiest way to go about starting an info graphic was to first pick out the most important data for the poster, then figure out how the facts relate to one another and then put the data in order. After I had followed this newfound advice I began to brainstorm ideas for the poster.
I sketched out several different layouts but my prison layout was my favorite from the beginning and when I presented my ideas to my class they agreed. I decided it would be the best way for me to creatively arrange the information on my poster. So now that I had my facts, the order in which I would present my facts, and how I would lay them out, I decided I needed to find ways to depict each fact graphically.
In this process I started with the layout so that I could base the size of my graphics off of the prison spaces. I wanted to find actual layouts of the Guantanamo naval base for my poster but I wasn’t able to find any. I am assuming this is because it is a naval base so is classified information. However, I was able to find a regular prison layout that I could use as a reference.
After this I because to find ways to illustrate my facts which I did by making quick sketches and sitting in front of my computer and looking at what worked.
Once I had some ideas for graphics down it was just a matter of creating them and getting everything in its place.
I had the hardest time creating the tomb stones. I wanted them to have depth without looking cartoonish and I wanted the the words on the tombstone to have the same depth but I couldn’t figure out how to warp it right. Thankfully I was able to discover the map art tool. I was able to turn the words that I wanted on the tombstone into symbols and then place them on the tombstone through the bevel and extrude tool. I like the way they turned out.
When I finally got the first draft of my poster done it was rough looking but it was a good start. After having a critique I realized that my Supreme Court folder didn’t read as a folder and that my gavel had more depth than my other illustrations. I also needed to resolve my fence. Once I started working on it some more I also realized that the graveyard had far more space that it needed. It was suggested to me that I try switching the title and the graveyard which turned out to be great advice.
My second poster was more resolved but I still felt like it was missing something. I looked back through my sketches and realized I had gotten rid of my barbed wire idea and didn’t really know why. So I decided to add barbed wire and texture to my poster to see how that would look.
I had a difficult time with this poster but once I finally got it finished I was happy with the end result. I really enjoyed to doing this project because it gave me the chance to create an info graphic which I had never done before. I also learned a lot about Guantanamo and the other two topics that I was allowed to choose from.
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