Our church had a Fall afternoon "carnival" and invited families and friends, neighbors and strangers alike to a free gathering for fun and fellowship. There was lots to eat and drink, plus live music, games, and many other attractions.
Yet, as you can see from the poster (left; click to enlarge), the invitation was meant to be completely open-ended, and encompass much more than just that one event.
Birth of a Notion
Here's a little background about how this poster came into being...
Isn't it true that many people are somewhat
puzzled about their spiritual life? Well, that idea led to some wordplay -- "Missing peace/piece" -- which in turn gave birth to a doodle (right). This sketch was then used to stimulate discussion and serve as conversational "flypaper" to help ensure the capture all necessary text.
Ah, but what picture should be on that puzzle? Combing through thousands of photos in the church archives provided just the right choice: a heart-warming hug at a baptism performed some years ago (middle right). If you look closely, you'll see that back then our pastor wore his hair a little bit longer under his baseball cap. So, I gave him a "trim" during retouching so it would be easier to recognize him as he is today.
I also got my wife and kids to agree to serve as the hand models for the foreground of the photo-collage.
I then scanned a blank puzzle, and traced it as vector art in Adobe Illustrator. A framed poster (bottom right) was likewise photographed and vectorized to make a dove logo that's easily manipulated.
These and other elements were then combined in Adobe Photoshop to produce a preliminary photographic "sketch" (bottom left), to verify all elements were acceptable, and to stimulate discussion about possible refinements. For instance, it was decided to keep the iconic dove logo pure white, rather that have it be colored as if it were a piece lifted straight out of the puzzle.
Notice, also, that in the preliminary version, several puzzle pieces have not yet been paired with matching portions of the baptism photo, and that the final version incorporated many other refinements in layout and typography to help make the most important facts -- "what," "when," and "where" -- stand out more clearly.
All in all, it was a fun and successful project, for which I was more than delighted to volunteer.
One final subtlety in the poster graphics: yes, there really
is a missing piece!
For Writers and Books, a local non-profit literary center located in Rochester's blossoming "Art Walk" district, I created a stylized photo collage of their renovated building and landmark sculpture. How many giant #2 pencils are there, you ask? Well, this twenty-footer is actually a #740 Pencil, because that's their street address.
The original is shown left, and as printed, right.
TIP: especially in candid portraiture, if you're after what photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson called "The Decisive Moment" (and not too concerned about resolution or sharpness), you can opt to shoot with a video camera. Later, just grab your subjects' most expressive single frames. That's what I did to create the middle (blue mastheaded) calendar cover above.
