Typography for “Backyard Boy”
Define the project:
Create a poster related to a song based on the things we learned on Typography.
Music List:
- River of Gold
- Backyard Boy
- I’m gonna kill Santa Claus
Keywords (Chosen by myself):
- Slow music
- Relaxing
- Appealing
Padlet for typography inspiration:
This includes fonts, images, and songs that I could be inspired by.
Here are some of the rough ideas:
Thumbnail:
Rough Drafts:
The rough draft here shows the I’m in bold letters while using the fancy font. Disadvantage: Too font-based, not so much on the imagery.
In this concept, I thought about the idea of using a Disney-ish font, because often, Disney is associated with dreams. This is only a concept, not a draft!
In the rough draft, I thought about incorporating a cursive font. To show the type of music, which relaxing slow pop music. However, the draft is too plain and does not have anything as imagery.
Here, I thought about the background that I could maybe use in my final design. This consist of a few pieces of clouds and a bright sun to show that it is a dream.
Here, I tried to think of the music in another way. However, I did not like the bold capitalized black font.
Music List:
- River of Gold
- Backyard Boy
- I’m gonna kill Santa Claus
I initially had three ideas for the music. However, the I’m gonna kill Santa Claus and River of Gold were either too violent or depressing in their diction. In contrast, Backyard Boy had this chill and relaxing vibe, while also being optimistic. Therefore, I decided to choose the verse “I’m living in dreams” from the song Backyard Boy.
I focused on the fourth rough idea because of the combination of aesthetics and lettering. Other rough designs are all just pure font, or too aesthetics-based. So, I felt like the fourth idea can really mix and balance it well, with the cloud and curvy font.
The more detailed drafts:
I created this idea because I commonly associate dreams with clouds and the night sky. And the blue/purple background is associated with dreams because it had a similar color to twilight, 
As I mentioned, clouds are what I associate with dreams. So I created this draft, which I later used in my final project. However, I didn’t like the use of color, So I combined the colors of the first draft to this.
I also associated candies with dreams…I don’t really know why.
Feedback:
Dominant elements
Type
color
Style of music
Slow pop
Design elements
Movement
Good color choice
But g looks bigger (odd)
Focus more on details like the outlines
Final product:
Process:
Here, I used the lines to make sure that all my words were in a straight line and also set the x-height, this is because I was gonna freehand everything.
In the draft above, I have revised the letter g after someone said that it looked kinda odd. I improved it by making it smaller and more cursive.
Version 1:
By this stage of the project, I have already created my final few versions. My classmate said that the colors weren’t able to blend in well. Therefore, I had spent some time smudging the borderline in the background. They also suggested that my clouds were too plain, so I added a small shadow to make it more aesthetically pleasing.
Version 2:
Version 2 differs from version 1 by the lack of an outline
Mr. Griffin suggested this idea to delete the outline. Since some of the text has an outline, and others don’t, he thought it would be more consistent if I didn’t have the outline.
Explanation:
Using design terminology, how does your poster successfully communicate the style of the song?
My poster communicates the style of music through many lettering techniques. With no serif, the style would seem less formal. It also used standard and uniformed x-height and cap-height to make sure that the style isn’t like rock, which can be all over the place. So, it could suggest a form of slow pop. I also used the design element of color to suggest that the style is relaxing. I used the principle of negative space, to suggest that the music isn’t too intense or full of content.
Overall, I am very pleased with my final result and enjoyed the process. I really think that when I am looking at my poster, anyone can feel the dreamy slow pop music. I really like my use of color, which had made the whole piece much more visually appealing.
Finally, I preferred the one without the outline more.
This is because the one without the outline seemed a lot more natural, whereas the other one had the words pop out. Though this is a slow pop song, I still think that it is very relaxing to listen to, and the one with the outline fits into the theme.
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