Background Concert Photo by Danny Howe on Unsplash
Salty Dawgs Gig Poster Design
Brief: I was tasked with designing a gig poster for a make-believe band with a specific vibe/genre and mood. This honestly was the most difficult part for me because I originally wanted to redesign a previous band's gig poster and when my client told me to come up with a make believe band, it was back to the drawing board, literally.
I chose to go with a mix of The Beatles and like indie rock music. I for some reason, was stuck on the name salty dawgs, with dogs spelled wrong. I feel like it gives a more full, hard tone to the word - dawg instead of dog(s). My original sketches were based on the Beatles song Yellow Submarine but soon deviated from that theme to dogs, French bulldogs to be exact.
Sketches
As I stated before, I started out going for a yellow submarine vibe with the design but soon turned to bulldogs and the drool theme. I did a few thought exercises to give me some more emotions, words, etc to think of for the design.
After drawing out a few designs and different variations of design elements, I decided to draw a French bull dog face. I used a few photos off of Google to reference as I drew, due to the lack of skills I have in the drawing department.
After that I scanned in the dog face I drew and traced it with the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator and got to work!
Color Palette
I looked at different colors of French bulldogs and liked this brown/black variation for this design. I included the colors in the location and date of the gig as well to add some variety and contrast to the background. I didn't want to make the gig details in black because it would be too much black; after all, the design is already slightly dark.
The Process
I knew I needed hard edges and a meaner looking dog for this design to give the right mood for the band. I think its slightly ironic that I have a bull dog as the main design but other rounded parts to give off the Indie (chill) mood.
The hardest part of designing the dog was the highlights. I only had to design half the dog as I simply reflected the pieces over to the other side and it completed it. Most French bulldogs look pretty symmetrical so I can no problem doing this for the remand of the project.
After consulting with a trusted colleague about the design, they suggested I add the same amount of detail to the drool (highlights and such) so that the theme would continue. I had a difficult time doing this as the drool is an awkward shape but I was able to accomplish it.
Final Thoughts
After changing my design multiple times during the sketching phase, I feel that the final product is in line with the mood of the band and allows the reader to clearly understand what the details are for the gig. I didn't enjoy the drawing phase but I realized I need to do more drawing if want to get more detailed and creative designs in the future.
