Graphics Project

This is the poster I designed for the graphics project. It is a poster of future stars of American soccer and refers to the World Cup 2010 in South Africa. It is a teaser poster of sorts because it doesn’t explicitly mention the World Cup, but it gives enough information to look it up on the web. I started out with the basic idea of a soccer and gradually refined what the poster was about. The biggest step in figuring out what I wanted was the background. When I found a large file on an American flag, that made it easy to decide. I used a couple of effects on it. First, I made it opaque so the players and the lettering would stand out. I also used a filtering effect (movie poster) because it made the light and dark of the picture stand out more. I used the same effect for pictures of the players because it made the harsh lighting of the stadium more nuanced as well as made the lines stand out. One trouble I hit with the background was the white of Bradley’s socks blended in with the white of the flag. To fix this, I used a very light grey gradient going from bottom left to top right to make his leg stand out. The balance between light and dark is effective because it provides some good contrast in the different images.

In general, I was going for a movie or show poster feel since soccer and other sports are forms of entertainment whose appeal are also frequently driven by star power. The font of “Stars of 2010” is appropriately named Broadway. The backdrop of actual stars for the word “Stars” and the word “shine” make the point that these players will (hopefully) be something special to see. I also put the players in a triangle shape, for a few reasons. Triangles are much more visually powerful than players in a horizontal line. Their positions also approximate their positions on the field as viewed from behind the goal since Altidore is a striker and the other two midfielders. Triangles are also important to passing in soccer, as players try to form triangles to move the ball around the field. The poster also relies heavily on the (presumed) patriotism of the viewer. The players are all in their National team uniform and only the player’s names and the opposing player’s leg disrupt the color scheme. The purpose of this is to get people (or at least US soccer fans) excited for the next World Cup.