Secret Garden Exhibition Poster
For this assignment I created a poster for a fictional exhibition: a fashion show showcasing the work of Kosovo-Albanian designer Teuta Matoshi. To represent her ethereal and complex formal dresses, I chose to create this poster using letterpress and use the raw quality of the ink as a design element.
My goal for this poster was to use type in a way as an appealing way to advertise the fashion show as opposed to using imagery or illustration. The title of the exhibition being “Secret Garden” lends the idea of secrecy, and my goal with the poster’s design was to create intrigue without spelling out what the event would entail.
The name of the event, the designer being showcased, the location, and dates of the exhibition were the only information I chose to include on the poster, any additional information being kept a “secret.”
Laser-cut wood and rubber stamps were used to print the type. The poster was printed in three layers: first the background gradient, then the large black type, then the smaller gray type .
I made many copies of this poster, and it was interesting to see how the gradient changed as the colors blended on the rollers and figure out how the type would line up.
Although typesetting is a time-consuming process, I loved the quality of the ink on the poster paper and the contrast between the type and the background gradient. While this poster was created for a single event, I would love to create a collection of posters in this style that could be used to accompany this one or advertise additional fashion exhibitions.