British Music Experience: Creating my BME poster

So I began thinking on what I could create for the British Music Experience poster. I did do a few drawings but wasn't really pleased with the outcomes. I knew that I wanted to include either the Union Jack flag or just the colours of Red,Blue and white. I didn't however just want to put a flag onto the poster, I wanted to make something different. I want the Union Jack on my poster because the BME is all about British Music.

Step 1
So I played around in Photoshop and started to create random shapes with the Pen tool. I then realised I could make some kind of shatter effect and create the Union jack with these shapes. I was also going to place some sort of instrument into the middle of the page. So I decided to find an instrument before I placed the rest of the shapes onto the page because I was the shapes to work off the Instrument.

Step 2
I found a guitar which would fit perfectly in the center of the page. I picked a Guitar because it is a well known instrument. I was lucky because I didn't need to move the shapes, they seemed to fit well with the Guitar quite well. Now that I had the Guitar I could now continue adding more shapes to try and create a Union Jack. I also added a drop shadow on the Guitar and shapes to make them not look too flat.

Step 3
So I carried on adding shapes around the guitar. When I was adding the shapes I didn't just want the same one shape just being used and rotated. So I created another shape which is totally different from the first. I thought it looked great because it kind of gives it that retro look. I was also trying to make sure that all the shapes were in the same place to make it look more professional. All I need to do now was to make a few more white shapes. I was really pleased on how it was looking, Even though the shapes do not form the Union Jack flag, It still stands out and you can tell what I am trying to create because of the colours I have used and the way I have designed it.

Step 4
I added the last few shapes onto the poster and I was really pleased with the outcome. Like I said before it dosen't look like the Union Jack flag but you can still see what I am trying to create. Instead of just adding the flag I have created something different. After doing this I then started to think on the background I wanted because I didn't want a white background when I have the white shapes. Plus I want the guitar and shapes to stand out more.

Step 5
As you can see I have gone with a grey background. I decided to use a gradient and used a light grey and a dark grey which gave the effect of the background is lighter in the middle of the page and around the edges of the page are darker. I thought this looked really good because firstly it is not just all one colour. Plus because it is lighter in the middle it makes the colours stand out more and the guitar stands out more too. I also wanted to know how a black background would look.

Step 6
This is when I tried the black and white gradient for the background. It does make the guitar stand out more with the black around the edges but I just liked the grey more. It just seems to fit well with the colours.

Step 7
I was quite unsure on what text I should use for this poster because I wanted it to fit the music theme well. I did pick out this font however which is called Bebas which I got off Dafont. It is a very bold text which is why I decreased the opacity down slightly so it wouldn't take away the attention from the middle of the page. I also Made the first letters bigger than the rest because I wanted the "BME" to not go away from the font. This is also why I stacked the font because I wanted it to say BME and British Music Experience.

Step 8
I tried a different position to the font to see how it would look and I fitted the text just in between the blue shapes. I seemed to like this more just because I thought it looked more tidy than the other layout and decided to keep it this way. However I was having second thoughts on the text, even though I turned the opacity down it still seemed to be way to bold.

Step 9
I found this font on Dafont as well which is called Angel Tears and I really liked it. I think it fits well with whats going on with the poster. It isn't as bold as the other font I used and I am happy with how it is placed. I picked this font just because I thought it would look well on the poster and I thought it would fit well with the theme. Looks very traditional and the BME are showing off old, popular music instruments and objects.

Step 10
So when I changed the font I was thinking about old/popular instruments. I realised that I could find a Popular guitar what had been used by a certain artist instead of just finding a random guitar off the internet. So I researched into the instruments that The Beatles used and I found out that George Harrison used a Gretsce Duo Jet guitar when he started off playing in Cavern Clubs. I thought this would be great for my poster If i could get a good quality image and use that instead. I got lucky because of the shape of the guitar was which it fit perfect.

Step 11
Here I was just seeing how an outline image of a guitar would look compared to a real image of a guitar. I was actually quite pleased on how it looked but I had to colour in the guitar because you couldn't see the lines much at all. Also because I was using a certain famous guitar used from the Beatles I wanted to use my other design more. It seems to add more character to the poster than this example.

Step 12
All I did now was take a screenshot of the British Music Experience website so I could get the logo and I simply cut out the background image and placed it onto my poster. I placed it in the top right of the poster just because I thought it looked good there and it seemed a bit empty at the top of the poster. The Opacity has been decreased to not catch your attention as much as It would have if I didn't decrease it.

Step 13
Now I have just added the times the BME is open for which I found the opening times on the official British Music Experience official website. I have also added the location of the event plus I just made up the fact it was free entry. I couldn't really think of anywhere else I could have put the text. I think it works well where it is and I picked a simple Myriad Pro font which is clear.

Step 14
I didn't want the text just to be dumped at the bottom of the page so I decided to add some stars either side just to make it look cleaner. I got the images off Google which then applied a shadow effect on them so they wouldn't look flat. I also turned down the Opacity a little so that they were not as bright. I then added the URL of the BME at the left top of the page. I wanted this on my poster because I thought it would make it look more professional. Plus you would see the URL of the website on other posters.

Reference List