Assignment 4 - Save, prevent, kill... : Poster design

Here is assignment 4. In this assignment, the students of NM2208 are supposed to come up with a poster design along the lines of "save, prevent, kill (something)". In detail, the assignment goes like this:

§Save, prevent, kill…: Poster design

–Pick a topic related to the theme (e.g.. Save forest, kill mosquitoes, save singlish, stop pollution etc.)

–Write a copy (text which goes on poster) of not more than 150 words

–Design the poster such that it coveys the meaning through layout (placement of visual elements - photos, text, graphics elements etc)

–Size of the artwork: A3

–Submissions should be in the form of colour print out.

For this assignment, I figured I would do a "stop animal cruelty" kind of poster. I am not an animal activist, but there is this particular cat, nicknamed "Tripod", that hangs out at the void deck of my place. Tripod is a 3-legged cat that I have seen "prowling" around my neighbourhood, and the moment I laid eyes on him, I felt intense hatred for the person/dog who did this to him. How could anyone do this to a poor little cat? After asking around, I found out that apparently he was a victim of animal cruelty by his previous owner who had left him to die.

Hence, who better than Tripod deserves the lead role in my poster? :) And here it is:


I chose to give the poster a black background because I felt that black, being chic in nature, would attract the audience-on-the-go to take a glimpse at the poster. Also, it is a simple colour that represents a sombre mood, which I thought fit the mood of the poster perfectly. I chose a simple font, garamond, to present a simple message for the viewers, so as not to complicate the poster. I felt that with a simple message and a good choice of words, the effect intended on the viewer could be heightened.

As Mr Reddy mentioned in lecture, a good poster has to tell the story quickly. This is because in the busy lives of the average person, they can only afford a quick glimpse of the poster. This is also a reason why I chose little words instead of many to convey my message.

Also, a good poster is attention grabbing. The attention-grabber in this poster would be Tripod himself. With his 3 legs and a stump for his 4th, I believe that the message is clear: "STOP ANIMAL CRUELTY"

Lastly, the last line "STOP ANIMAL CRUELTY" is presented in red because I feel that red brings out a sense of "warning" to the viewer. Red, as explained in lecture, represents "danger", "blood". Hence, through the use of a red font, my intentions are to explain to the reader the cruelty against Tripod.

As mentioned in the lecture, a stark and simple poster can convey a message more effectively. I hope my poster is simple enough. I have observed "harmony" throughout the experimentation of the poster. After receiving comments on the original poster I created, I decided to change the layout of this poster so as to appear more harmonious with my message.

Another thing that I have observed while creating this poster is how to control the attention of the viewer. In this poster, the attention is caught by the picture in the middle, which then goes to the top and to the bottom.