research design laboratory

Life Stories and Large Format Posters

These days Archinodes is working on a few very different projects. One of these projects is the design of large format posters for the important Life Stories Montreal (LSM) Rencontres happening in March 2012 in Montreal. The Rencontres is an opportunity for Montrealers who have left their home country to share personal stories of displacement due to war, genocide and other human rights atrocities.

The concept for the posters was determined by the LSM organizing committee, and is intended to mix testimonial with forward-thinking. The idea is to move away from the the rhetoric of victim and into a place of reflection and a positive space for sharing experiences. Our assignment was to work with images provided by the committee and use select quotes to generate a compelling event poster series. From this, we would also create a program, calendar or the event, banners, and newspaper ads.

In collaboration with graphic designer Antonia Hernández, this week we are creating the large-format posters to be exhibited on metro platforms and in metro cars (in Montreal). The interesting bit has been to design something knowing it will be printed at 500%!! Because legibility is key, we've been carefully assessing the right font size based on the metro platform, accounting for the distance people will be from the poster both on side of and across the tracks. Contrast (of font to image) is also key as the posters will be lit from the back, on the platform. An other thing to think of is the amount of time people will have to read the posters -- and to design the posters so that they will communicate the most for those speeding by on the metro. And as a final thought for now, we're very much into the idea of making the posters into a series so that people see one poster at a station and another at the next station - effectively starting to collect these stories before the event takes place in March. More on all this as soon we get feedback and start the printing process...

Process
Print
node/83