Broadside Poem: The Valley

A collaboration with SDSU’s English and Comparative Literature Department on this Poem Broadside project. The goal is to successfully design a given poem in a creative and conceptual manner utilizing the broadside format. Poetry International, an organization who publishes poetry anthologies, is also involved in this collaboration. We were given directions to pick key words from the title that might give visual cues for our layout direction.

Designer Statement:
The goal for this project was to create a poster along with an excerpt from an assigned poem from the Poetry International. We had to create the imagery to go along with the theme of the poem and to get a basic visual on what the poem is about. For my specific project, I got assigned the poem The Valley by Lauren Green and chose this specific excerpt from the poem because the text has potential for very nice imagery which I went through many trial and error phases before getting the final result.

Design Exploration:
I began by creating a basic digital layout on how I wanted the overall look to turn out. However, I ended up taking the prompt too literally and wanted to incorporate too much from the poem such as the dog, the boat, the sky, the text, etc. I then took matter into my own hands and decided that it needed a major upgrade. I played around with transparency because I am very interested in how it made the text blend into the imagery and make it become one with the background.

Finalized Design Concept and Evaluation:
The final project is a 13 x 19 poster overall giving a clean look to the imagery and showcases the wonderful combination of text and design. It incorporates an excerpt of the poem "The Valley" by Lauren Green. The overall product was successful and this was one of my favorite works so far.