How to design a poster

Well, at least how I do it :) A poster I designed for a Fil-Am congregation in Florida, via Dodong.

I've never heard of Kaamulan before, so I really had no top-of-the-head ideas how to go about this. When I did visit a few sites as reference, I learned that Kaamulan is the Binukid word for "social gathering". I was amazed by the craftsmanship and the vivid colors of their costumes and ornaments. The challenge was obvious: how to design a poster without making it look like the more popular Sinulog/Ati-atihan event materials. Which is exactly why I advised against showing a headress or a shield, I've seen one too many of those.

Kaamulan is an indigenous dance based on an ancient royal courtship ritual. Unlike the already heavily-commercialized Sinulog, the participants are real natives from Bukidnon's eight indigenous tribes, and they perform a ritual dance passed through generations.

The dance itself is part of the larger Kaamulan pageantry which comprise the pangampo (general worship), the tagulambong ho datu (a political ritual marking one's formal ascendancy to the datuship), the panumanod (spiriting ceremony), the panlisig (edging away of evil spirits), another ceremony called pamalas and a native horse fight called kagsaba ho kabayo. (Source)

It is a cultural jewel, to say the least. And they're bringing it to an audience in America.

I started with the dance concept and the royal courtship angle, which gave me a wide palette of visual metaphors. When I design, I always think of words first before pictures.

(Unless cliche presents itself as a more appropriate option, so I go straight to execution. Sometimes it's good for quickie hard-sell campaigns. Most times, it just falls flat.)

Where were we? Ah, words.

Courtship -> dance -> grace -> steps -> feet.
Indigenous -> tribal costume -> color -> detail

Any communication material strives for a visual device to call attention. The poster has the added urgency of packing information which can be absorbed in a matter of seconds. Too little, and you're not communicating anything, and one admires it simply as a wall piece. Steve Krug reminds us, "Don't make me think". Too much information on the other hand defeats the medium's strength, and they do this a lot, squeezing sponsor logos and program information. There should be the flyer or the print ad for those.

The central images are the event logo and the illustration. The logo is a stylized classic serif face.

Like I said, I wanted to avoid the usual dance stance found in most Filipino festival posters, typically showing the full body in costume regalia. So I decided that showing the lower extremities in the frozen two-step pirouette emphasizes the measured rhythm of the dance and its barefoot grace. I particularly illustrated the feet as plump, blunt and rugged, definitely eschewing the comic artist's idealized proportions.

I think the vivid swatches of color against the harsh shadows caused by spotlights draw attention rather than drown the detail of the accessories. And lastly, I exaggerated the shadow to put the illustration to its side of the poster and leave the text of the poster to do its job.

For the tickets, I was inspired by the amphigram of the royal figures in a typical deck of cards.



The in-event banners/buntings naturally were derived from the stylized "k".