Graphic Poster With Quote "Progress Not Perfection"

I am a perfectionist. Especially when it comes to learning new things. I made this poster to remind myself and others that when it comes to growth, making progress is what is important, not being perfect. I also made this poster in order to challenge myself to embrace the more artistic and creative side of typography. Below is the design process on how I made this poster. These steps also showcase how to make your own graphic design poster that showcases the art of typography!

1. Pencil
2. Paper
3. Device with camera
4. Tracing light box (optional)
5. Computer with Adobe Illustrator Software Installed

The first thing I did before making anything was to brainstorm ideas for my poster. To do this, I thought about what was important to me. Then once I settled on what ideas and concepts I wanted to showcase in my poster, I started researching similar concepts online. This gave me more ideas to narrow down what kind of message I wanted to display. A good way to find ideas is by using the internet or Pinterest. (However when using the internet I was sure to only get ideas and not to copy others designs) My favorite way to find ideas is by thinking about what I want to say or communicate to the world.

After I settled on my idea, I used a pencil and paper to sketch out my designs. You can also use a drawing tablet if that is what you prefer. If you were to create your own font, you need rules to keep the lettering consistent. My font did not have too many rules as I wanted to go for a more artistic and stylistic approach. I tried messing around with different abstract forms so that the way the letters fit together was entirely unique. I was going for a geometrical style of typography and here were my rules for the font.

1. Letters must show some form of depth using lines extending from the letters.
2. Letters must conform to a blocky shape (No rounded lines) (For example, for the letter "O" or "P" I would angle out the rounded parts of the letters.
3. Letters must fit into each other (Like puzzle pieces)
4. The sizing of each letter needs to be consistent

Another thing I decided when making this typography was to incorporate a symbol to emphasize my idea that I was going with for the poster. I used an arrow to show the idea of progress. When making a poster you want the idea to be easily understood. Adding simple symbols or infographics is a great way to make sure your information gets across.

Once I made each word with my lettering, I tried erasing and redrawing certain areas to see what other abstract forms I could make. Once I was happy with those, I transferred it to another piece of paper using a tracing light box to make my lines easier to see. You do not need a Lightbox for this step but I find it makes the process easier once you go over your design in illustrator later.

Once you have your finalized sketch, you can take a picture of it and send it to your computer that you will be using and download it. I used my phone camera and then emailed the picture to myself, but you can also use an SD card or other types of transferring to move your sketch onto the computer.

Once I downloaded my design onto my computer, I opened Adobe Illustrator and made a new file using art boards. From there I went to "File" and chose "place" to access my files. Then I chose the file of my sketch and placed it into my adobe workspace on top of the art board. I then used the pen tool to outline my sketch. I made sure to up the thickness of my stroke so that I could see the lines I made better when I was drawing them.

Once I outlined my design, I looked for color pallets I could use that would match the theme of my design and also look well together. For this I used Adobe color. Once I found the color pallet I wanted, I placed it into my workspace. I then used the colors to fill in my design. I colored it in using the bucket fill tool on Illustrator. For quick access to the bucket tool you can use command "K" on Mac. I tried to create a good bit of contrast by using white so that the reader would know where to look. Color can heavily influence whether your design is well read. During this step, I also used the "rectangle" tool to make a rectangle behind the quote so that once I colored it in, there appeared to be a border. A border can really frame your design and give it a much more organized look.

After I had colored in my project, I wanted to see if I could find some better colors. If you are happy with how your design looks at this point, you may skip this step. I used adobes "recolor" tool to quickly recolor my design. I copy and pasted multiple variants of my design so that I could compare which I liked better. At this point, I also messed around with background shapes and the size of my arrow symbol to see if that could improve the overall look of my design. I decided against using a slanted parallelogram because it was too distracting from the main elements but opted to keep the arrow larger to create more balance and emphasis. When making a poster you want there to be a good portion of open space and balance so that the viewers can easily rest their eyes. Once I decided on which elements I liked, I combined them into my final poster. Lastly, I made sure to center align all the assets on my poster together using the "align" tool in the properties panel.

Now for the fun part! Once I was happy with how my design looked, I exported it as a PNG at 300 PPI for the best quality. I would highly suggest exporting your poster as a PNG over a JPEG as it has a better resolution and color depth. Now you're done! You can now share your design as you please!