Danny and the Long Necks: An Ode to Eighties Nostalgia

The objective was to design a vector gig poster WITHOUT a clear message while conveying an emotion. My concept was to create an ode to eighties nostalgia. I wanted people to think of a young group of eighties kids riding their bicycles  home from the arcade with their pockets empty ready to schmooze their parents for a few more nickels. This is my process.

I started with a mind mapping creative brainstorming process. Writing words and related ideas which inspired me to start sketching out my ideas. I knew very quickly that I wanted to depict dinosaurs being fought by kids armed with paper planes. Dinosaurs remind me of my youth. Every kid loves dinosaurs! 

I liked my initial draft. I felt that i got my idea down well. But after receiving a lot of feedback I knew I had a few changes to make in order to more effectively tell my story. The first problem I realized I had was that it did NOT look like the kids were engaging in an epic battle with Brody (the brontosaurus). Secondly the colors were off balance. The dinosaur, which was supposed to be the focal point had no color and too easily was lost in the image.

I made a lot of changes to address the concerns that came up in the draft. First of all I really wanted to embrace the perspective creatIed using the iconic Atari gridlines. In order to do this I angled the hands and planes to remain consistent with the grid system. I also enlarged the hands making you feel as if you are one of the brave dinosaur slaying kids. The color helps to better depict more of eighties nostalgia than techno which is a problem I realized when receiving feedback. Overall I feel this poster conveys a unique story and feeling without clearly depicting any specific message. Many people with many different experiences with eighties culture and childhood will experience this poster differently.