A Good Example of Conceptual Design
The poster below shows a good example of conceptual design. The poster itself is about a rock band festival and the picture chosen cleverly combines two symbols that are known around the world as symbols of rock ‘n’ roll. One is of course the headstock of a guitar, an instrument that is fundamental in any rock band, which the designer of the poster has formed into the shape of the ‘rock-hand’ symbol. This symbol is famous and widely used by fans of the genre to show their appreciation of the music.
As you can see from the poster the guitar is shown smashing itself out of the ground, this is kind of representative of rock’s “anti-pop-culture” roots, breaking out of the ground and clashing with the more colourful mainstream. There are small bits of debris flying from each side at the bottom, the debris also look like the cartoony visual representations you would see when loud music is coming from an amp.
The contrast between the monochromatic black of the symbol, to the brilliantly bright, gradient bars of the orange in the background that are shining down onto the guitar, this creates such a striking image that instantly draws attention. The orange outline on the fingers and strings, and the way the designer has shown the tuning keys going up the fingers mixes the two images together effortlessly so it is easy to understand what they are and notice the little details the designer put into this poster. This is a brilliant and well thought out example of conceptual design and you can firmly grasp the message the designer wanted to put out.
A Bad Example of Conceptual Design
With the example chosen the main problem would be that it does not stand out as a rock festival poster. the colours and imagery do not stand out well, everything seems to blend in together. The creamy yellow colour is used repeatedly on the text, guitar, angel wings and background, this is also done with the pink which cause it all to look very bland. Other than the guitar and the obvious title, nothing screams rock festival. The angel wings on the side of the guitar look tacky and randomly placed.
Looking at the poster there seems to be a very random placement of images, effects and text. Music festival is written twice, there is a weird pink grunge effect around the corners and yet there is a clean dot gradient effect in the centre, and the shape edges of the grunge effect also contrast with the rounded stroke around the guitar image. This creates a bad poster because these is no cohesion to the design. The reason this can be considered a bad example of conceptual design is because the visual representation of rock music is just not there, and does not really convey any message, without the text you would not know what this poster is for.
For the improved poster above, the angel wing has been incorporated into the guitar by blending it onto the side, and the wing itself has been made larger to create a more striking image. The guitar has been placed at a slight diagonal angle and a more eye-catching colour has been used that complements the new fire background. The background pattern and grunge has been removed to bring more attention to the image and title. A fire design has been added to the guitar and the top of the guitar is also used as part of the ‘K’ to complement the rock theme and connect the image and title together nicely.
References:
Rock Festival. Vector Poster. 123RF. Available online: https://www.8975.co.uk/gourmet-coffee/ [Accessed 26/10/23].
Aresdimashdiss (2017) Shutterstock. Available online: https://www.socialbakers.com/linkedin-statistics/ [Accessed 26/10/23].
Raffaello. Pngtree. Orange Fire Ball Flame Clip. Available online: https://www.garrreynolds.com/preso-tips/design/ [Accessed 26/10/23].
Artoholics. 123rf. Hot Rod Blaze and Flame. Available online: https://www.garrreynolds.com/preso-tips/design/ [Accessed 26/10/23].