Another interesting challenge! We chose from a set of images and sounds to find an unusual combination that inspired us; you can see the images I chose below. My choices let me to imagine a self-help book and workshop designed to allow followers to break free from society's expectations.
The image of the monks cells in the caves on the left reminded me almost of barnacles or oysters: trapped and trapping one another by crowding tightly together. The image on the right made me imagine one breaking free from a mass of mollusk shells.
Next it was time to write out a description of what was happening in these pictures and at this point we were encouraged to enter our descriptions into an AI program to help us determine what sort of of product we should market. This is where I got the idea for a self-help seminar. Below is my page of notes, some mine, some directly from ChatGPT, that formed the creative brief.
Now for visual research I looked for images of yoga and tai chi poses. Then I used those to create some preliminary sketches. At this point in the design process, I find I can get my ideas out more efficiently with an old-fashioned pencil and paper. I just find that it goes more easily and quickly this way; the mouse of my computer just can't keep up! Below you can see my preliminary sketches, as well as the color story inspiration.
From there, I used Illustrator's brush tool to trace a photograph of a woman practicing yoga. This would be the main focus of the poster and the rest of the art for the marketing campaign.
All the pieces of the poster fell together pretty quickly and I went on to tackle the book cover, expending on the original sketches. The gradient brought to mind the beach at dawn, so I sketched in the idea of a shoreline.
The final design for the came together at this point. All that was left was to add some copy, courtesy of ChatGPT since composing copy is not one of my strong suits.
For the banner ad, I used the same color gradient and sketch from the poster, this time rotating the gradient on its side. I added a book critic's blurb and it was done. You can see the finished product below.
