Final poster resolutions that reflects upon materiality within my own practice

After all of the exploration within my practice-based research looking at different print mediums, I have finally made a series of posters. I decided that posters would be my preferred choice of outcome, as this supports my own practice and visually shows materiality as a tactile response to the work within the realms of communication on a larger scale within print. My main objective was to fully explore typography using the Hebrew letter Alef as a lens towards experimenting with type and how materials can enhance the overall aesthetics through printed medium.  

Video that shows the final making stages of the posters (Jones, 2023)

I have now come to the final stage of producing the screen-printed posters. I wanted to make sure that I would explore different ways to visualise the Alef letter. I decided again to print on different paper stock and cards that would enhance the prints and add visual connotation towards materiality. 

I feel that the overall experience of screen printing these posters was definitely hard work, as it got me to work on a larger scale both it being A1 size and printing multiple posters. I wanted to make lots of different posters that become part of a collection that promotes my full exploration within this module. 

The photo shows the final screen-printed posters (Jones, 2023)

It was important for me to take high-quality photos of my work with a good source of lighting. This is because I will be mocking these up via Photoshop, this will be part of my submission to showcase three final posters in the right visual setting to illustrate in detail the print designs by enhancing their value to visually show my understanding towards materiality from the perspective of the user being me whilst aiming the work at a chosen audience of designers who don't see the need of print design as part of their process. 

Below are the final mocked-up posters that illustrate the finished printed work in a more visual way to engage its value towards the audience. I decided to purchase this mock-up from graphic designer Alessio Borando, whom I discovered a while back via Instagram and have appreciated his working practice ever since. I was looking for a specific poster-style mock-up that would connote similar poster stands that I came across when travelling around Europe and so when I discovered Borando's mock-up showcasing this I had to download it.

Image showing poster resolution 01-03 (Jones, 2023)

The mock-up clearly adds value to the print design and does not take anything away, which is something else that I wanted for my final resolutions. The idea is to focus primarily on the print design itself, focusing on the materials used from the use of acrylic inks to the different choices of paper stock. I decided to add further text to these posters as a subtle addition to give further context to the reader and explain the project briefly to the audience. 

Image showing poster resolution 02-03 (Jones, 2023)

I feel that each poster print is successful in its rightful sight, making each print outcome unique to that design style. I wanted to create different visualisations of how I see the letters Alef in my own responses in a contemporary way.

Texture clearly has played a major part in the design's print development, from the use of half-tone effects added to the silk screens, to the layered textures added to further screens. I feel that this aligns to my developed methodology approach in image making and primarily using print design as a means to communicate my message to the audience who view this work. 

Image showing poster resolution 03-03 (Jones, 2023)

I feel that it has pushed me to work on a larger scale within screen printing as it has given me more space to explore and play around with different compositions. I feel exceptionally proud of the final poster that I made, this is because this outcome consists of 4 different silk screens used to make one final print. From what I had researched previously to this, was that I wanted to see how many screens I would use to layer my designs to make a single print from it.

The mixture of colours was something else that I adopted from doing further research into colour theory which is vita in print design. The choices of colours were strategic as I wanted the design to reflect modernism and so I used process colours that were bright to achieve this. The overlay texture was to create a visual understanding towards materiality and how type and geometric shapes can create visual harmony with one another. 

This outcome in particular was most successful, as it clearly identifies a different visual approach to the Alef letterform through the means of screen printing. Breaking the comment pieces down has shown a new perspective for this letterform that not only complements the print style but also adds connotations towards modularity within the construction of a typeface.

Further thoughts.

The overall development within my screen printing capabilities has proven that it is good to push yourself whilst staying reflective in the process. This has helped my working practice dramatically in this field of image-making. I will definitely in some way be exploring screen printing again in my major project and see what else I can create from this printed medium.