mix o tammy: modern & handsome, an agreeable combination

Promotional materials have been completed for Alvin Lustig's upcoming Lecture.

Below is a photo from my flier; I wasn't kidding about his appearance. The text, Born to Challenge Tradition, is a play on Lustig's claim that he was Born Modern. (The photo is from a book cover, with texture intact.)

I have learned to repurpose a design to create a cohesive series for a poster, flier and ecard. My goal was to retain my personal style within the context of Alvin Lustig's influence. While creating these materials and gathering information about Alvin Lustig, I have grown an affinity for the artist. He and I even may even have some similarities, if not in style, at least in concept; according to Steven Heller, Senior Art Director of the New York Times, Lustig was a visual poet whose work was rooted in as much emotion as in form.

Below: an earlier poster design within my process. Since Lustig would choose structure over excess, I tried to remove a little fluff, tighten the angles and integrate the type in a cleaner fashion.

Below: the final poster design. One of my concerns was elevating the hierarchy of Alvin Lustig's name within the poster. I simplified the photo to incorporated larger text.

Below: a detail of the fabric texture I have recently incorporated. Since Lustig experimented with letterpress, I tried to restrict the type to angles the letterpress could achieve.

Below: a close up of the background fabric. Since Lustig designed textiles and experimented with photomontage, I've incorporated a giant, abstracted fabric chair in the background.

Previously the zig-zag color strips (which serve as containers for type) were chunky, sharp, vector shapes. I brought the fabric photo into photoshop and redrew the shapes. A slight feather around the edges of the shapes aided my integration.

Since my tendency is to overdesign, I tied my hands up and attempted to create a simple design for my flier.

Communication between the panels was encouraged. The top of the Lustig photo (outside of flier) shares the same height as the art examples section (on the inside). Also, all art work was placed on the same baseline, the text for the captions were left aligned with the art picture's edge.