Late 2017, I had the good fortune of working on a fun poster for Fortis Construction with Mr.Shane Kucera (who was great to work with!). Shane sent a brief for the project which had a very interesting challenge... to create a single poster which encapsulated construction projects Fortis had in 4 distinct geographic locations throughout the United States. These kinds of projects are always fun to challenge because they require lots of problem solving beyond the challenges of trying to make a good picture.
After a few calls with Shane and lot's of brainstorming, I took to sketching to find the answer.
Sketches
The challenge with creating a piece with such different geographic locations is figuring out how to combine them in a way that makes sense and still creates a compelling piece. The two solutions I explored (as seen above) were a single layout (where everything was combined into a single piece) vs a four panel layout (where each geographic location had it's own separate space).
Ultimately the single layout worked best because it combined everything in an interesting way and created a poster with lots of details to explore. With approval from Shane and his team to move forward, it was time to paint this piece!
Black & White Flats
Working in black and white was extremely helpful for this piece simply because of the overall complexity of the layout and the detail throughout. At this point I had no idea what direction I was going to go with the final color but it didn't matter because I could still move forward after determining how to light the piece. I began working from the top down on this image, making sure to craft each location with the love and attention they deserved.
The added challenge of this piece was knowing that it wouldn't always appear as one single image. There would be times when people would just see the Portland area or just see the Reno area so I had to make sure each location had enough detail to stand on it's own while not overwhelming the entire piece. Quite the challenge!
Color
When it came time to color this piece, I realized the best way to approach it would be to unify the color on everything rather than coloring each location as if it were being uniquely lit. This would help pull each of the locations together to create what I hoped would be a compelling poster. In the end, the colors worked, and the team at Fortis was excited at the end result - which is always my goal.
Big thanks to Shane and the team at Fortis for the opportunity - I really appreciate it!
Lastly, thank YOU for taking the time to view my work. It means a lot to be able to share with all of you and I consider myself very fortunate to be a part of this awesome community.
