What am I being asked to do?
design 2 posters to the same upcoming event - one is with as much information as possible and the other with the least possible.
have at least an image and one main line of text
Which event I chose
I chose a cacao ceremony as the event I’m going to create the poster for.
What are the Keywords for the design
cacao
sacred
ceremony
spiritual
Who are the Target audience
spiritual people or people who are open minded and are interested in delving into a ceremonial experience in order to get to a higher state or just for the experience. people who are looking for healing.
What message do I want to pass
healing, wellbeing and uplifting feeling. interest the viewer to come and try something special.
Must Include
an image. text - one poster as much info as possible, the other as little as possible.
Primary Research
what is the full information I have
what information is crucial
learn about cacao ceremonies
check other designs of cacao ceremonies posters, check other designs of healing and spiritual posters
Secondary Research
what is the full information I have
Come and experience the wonder of our Sacred soulful
heart opening Cacao ceremony held in the Pyramid of the Moon.
A time of reflection, connection, mantras, dance,
heart opening music & Sacred Ceremonial Balinese Cacao.
Followed by a 45 minute Gong & Sound healing.
*Fresh fruit and tea served after ceremony
One of the highlights of the week at the Pyramids and very popular.
Due to often being full, we recommend that you book ahead. Please use the booking system on our website:
Only Rp300,000
(Minimum 10 people required for the event to take place)
If you pay beforehand, then please ensure you arrive at the Pyramids before 5:30 pm on the night to check in.
* Please note that due to the preparation needed for this ceremony, we reserve the right to cancel the event in the case that less than 10 participants register for the event.
what information is crucial
Event name (what is it),
time,
place,
where to get more information (as well as purchasing the tickets)
learn about cacao and cacao ceremonies
I was looking for some inspiration about cacao and cacao ceremonies. This is an ancient ceremonial wisdom of the mayan and Aztecs tribes. They cook the cacao (just under boiling) with spices and drink it in order to get into a medetitive state, to feel one with yourself, nature, and the ones around you.
"It is a mysterious product, rendered sacred, but for reasons never clearly stated ... Linked to the earth and the cyclical nature of human life, it both mediates and transcends relationships between humans and the forces that animate the earth” - Prufer and Hurst 2007
There is “the god” and the “goddess” of cacao that is related to ancient texts, I was inspired by that fact and was looking for either a photo/ drawing of both of them with the plant or just the goddess. Goddess, feminine, is always relates us to nurturing, to healing, and to our heart and emotions. The cacao is described in many texts as related to the blood- the heart, and in fact, it does increase the serotonin and sharpen the senses, which makes it very sexual and emotional related.
I was looking for a drawing of the goddess and then I found this drawing of a goddess giving a cup of fresh brewed cacao, as giving the viewer his healing, and “whispering a clue” of what he/she can get from the event.
This is the mood board from pinterest and the image that I found -
The image I chose -
check other designs of cacao ceremonies posters, check other designs of healing and spiritual posters
I did some research about healing events and cacao ceremonies event posters and how other people solve the same problem. Most of “new age” or holistic event owns a very poor design which is a petty. but there were some the I liked.
Then I looked for some inspirations into poster design in general and found some inspiration.
this is my pinterest board inspiration -
I wanted to go for something quite clean, since the image that I found is pretty complexed and it should be the main thing in the poster. So pairing a minimalist text and the brown box seemed to me the best solution.
Then I added the text, I decided that the most information would be -
The time, place, title, including this text -
“Come and experience the wonder of our Sacred soulful
heart opening Cacao ceremony held in the Pyramid of the Moon.
A time of reflection, connection, mantras, dance,
heart opening music & Sacred Ceremonial Balinese Cacao.
Followed by a 45 minute Gong & Sound healing.
*Fresh fruit and tea served after ceremony
Get your tickets here -
Only Rp300,000
(Minimum 10 people required for the event to take place)”
and the least would be only the time, place and title.
that was my first version before I sent it to friends and family for feedback
First I asked for my professional graphic designer friend for his opinion and he loved the image a lot, he said the headline is a bit hard to read so he suggest to make it bigger and bolder, he said it is good I chose to use 2 fonts (one for title and one for text), he offered to add vertical spacing on the subheading inside the brown square.
So I made the Title bigger and bolder, then I spaced the other text vertically, and also a bit horizontally to create more space.
My father and my mother said the minimalistic version should have a more inviting text into the website address.
I thought about it, but since I'm trying to be more minimalistic and as I read in an article about Occam’s Razor, it is sometimes harder to be more minimalist and keeping it simple.
https://speckyboy.com/taking-the-occam-razor-approach-to-design/
It did make me observe it, which is good.
My sister and my boyfriend both they said that both designs look good, but they liked a lot better the minimalistic one.
Another friend which is an artist, photographer, graphic designer, free spirit and also guide cacao ceremonies mentioned some interesting things -
First she preferred the more information design, which was interesting.
She said the font is great and takes her into ancient times, as well as the image which is so strong. She mentioned it is interesting I put the edge of the brown square in one photo to the left edge of the right eye and on the other the right edge of the right eye. she asked me whether or not I did it on perpuse and why didn't I stopped the square at the end of the text. She added that she liked the fact I respected the image and kept everything else very quite, and I shared with her my ideas and emotions about the image. She also mentioned that for next time I can try to play around with the colours of it, and change it completely.
I liked the fact she gave me ideas and open questions more then a proper feedback. It opened my mind more about my further work and let me observe my work now at the same time.
REFLECTION
This task was interesting as I had to work on layouts and work on amount of information needed on my designs. It made me think about what is really important and what can I leave outside this design. Also for future designs I will be able to perhaps make 2 different designs 1 full in info and one minimalistic. I really lernt a lot from this exerices.