~ Chicago Latino film festival - final design ~

My typography for the poster was very much informed by 'festival culture'. Particularly an independent film festival has a certain vibe and reputation for being quirky and individual. This is something I aimed to express through my typographical illustration; the fine detailed aesthetic created is representative of the often groundbreaking and completely individual films that are shown at this event. Each letter, illustration and pattern are hand drawn therefore individual themselves and well informed by its context. I think the fact it is hand drawn also links to the idea that many of the films will of been done by indie film makers who don't necessarily have the money to buy all the equipment they would use to create a blockbuster movie; in both cases it comes down to a DIY attitude.

This is one of my initial experiments with layout. The colour was informed by the iconic red associated with Latino culture. I experimented here with more hand drawn (brush pen) type; but I felt this took the focus off the illustrative type a little too much and the hierarchy of information needed to be adjusted.

I tried out an assortment of different typefaces trying to choose one that represented Latino culture (serifs suggest flair and fire which are big symbols for them). I came across Bluu Next; the sharp serifs and unusual use of geometry and varied stroke width gives a brilliant sense of individuality making it perfect for this poster.

To create a better sense of type hierarchy and make the illustrative type the boldest part of the design I added more elements of information to the poster (date & examples of films/directors within the festival). I made sure everything was aligned in accordance with each other to keep a sense of balance. I made 'film festival' the biggest and centralised it within the poster as I feel its the most likely bit of information to draw people in; they will then be drawn to read the red type then the smaller information when interested.

I feel the poster successfully communicates the indie production value of the type of films that are showing within the festival due its partly hand illustrated nature. The digital type is the more information element to the design that once the viewer is drawn in encourages people to look into it further.