The poster design above features my school’s mascot, Knightro, gripping a pair of scantrons, one tan, one pink. These are the scantrons we use at my University for multiple-choice examinations. UCF’s Student Government Association offers one free daily scantron to every UCF student with a UCF ID! You just walk into the SGA office, swipe your card at the terminal, and the receptionist will hand you the scantron you need. Unfortunately, it’s something that isn’t widely advertised. Most people find this out through word-of-mouth.
The poster, originally created with 9 x 12″ proportions, was designed for just that! A simple poster that can be put up anywhere on campus for people to see. It is entirely designed in Illustrator, making it completely vector, even the shading and colorization. So if the poster needed to be blown up to a massive scale, it could. Likewise, I can shrink it down to something smaller and cheaper to print.
CONCEPT AND PROCESS
Normally I sketch out a thumbnail of the whole composition prior to starting digitally, but because of the time crunch (7 days to design a poster), I did a quick sketch of Knightro on my sketchbook which I would scan in and refine in Illustrator. Once he was scanned in and put onto a locked template layer in Illustrator, I made a 9 x 12″ artboard, positioned him in the bottom-right corner where I originally intended him to be, and drew the outlines. Once he was drawn in, I colored him in flat just by adding a gold fill to the outlines. Then I used the “Draw Inside” feature to draw in the shadows and highlights on Knightro.
After Knightro was finished, the background elements followed. I did a star-burst effect on a solid background to draw attention to the scantrons. I then created the ribbons up above, using subtle gradiations of color to imply depth, with the words “Free Scantrons” on the upper part of the ribbon and “@ SGA Office” on the lower part. Just enough information to send people their way. No need to crowd a design with more than needed type and imagery.
MY NEW JOB
I created this poster for my presentation at the Senate Confirmation back in June 27. Though my work speaks for itself, I wanted the SGA Senate to see the kind of work I can offer to them as their new graphic specialist. I am happy to announce that they have unanimously agreed to have me be a part of the new SGA cabinet for the 2013 – 2014 Melissa and Jacob administration. Expect to see more SGA and UCF related designs from me this coming academic year!
