Illustrator’s Toolkit - Photoshop

For our work using Photoshop we were given a brief to create two posters themed around Carlisle as part of live brief for Cumberland Council and Tullie to be displayed in the centre of Carlisle. 
We were given a number of themes to work from, we would chose two and include the title of the theme somewhere on the image.
The themes:
​-Carlisle is Wild
-Carlisle is Social
-Carlisle is Industrial 
-Carlisle is Revolutionary 
-Carlisle is Resilient 

I began my work by creating thumbnails of potential ideas to help me decide which themes I was going to approach for the final poster 

From this is decided I would focus on the themes of ‘Industrial’ and ‘Resilient’ 

‘Carlisle is Industrial’ Poster Development 

The first idea I developed further was the poster for the theme of ‘Industrial’ I specially looked at Dixon’s Chimney a prominent feature in both Carlisle’s skyline and its industrial history. It was built in 1836 as part of Shaddon Mill, the chimney was restored by Carlisle City Council in 1999.

I collected a number of image references of the chimney from the internet:

And by taking my own photographs:

I worked up two thumbnails to get a better idea of how I wanted to progress. I had two ideas one looking from the side of the chimney putting a focus on its size as it towers over everything else within the image, and another looking down from above. I wanted to use warm colours within the poster to reflect the brick of the chimney.

I used the tutorials we were provided with as well as some I found online while using the software as it is still something I struggle with. I also have the shortcut notes from image editing we had done previously in the studio. (add yt link to tutorials)

Shortcut notes from previous session 

I began image development in Photoshop, working on an A3 file size (297 x 420 mm) at 300 dpi. I created an outline of my idea with simple shapes working directly from the thumbnails I had drawn. I chose to do this for both of my ideas as I had yet to decide which one to develop properly.

Further development idea 1

The font I chose to use for this poster is ‘FHA Condensed French.’

Final Version

I used the colour balance options on Photoshop to experiment with a variety of colour variations for the poster 

I also created further developed my second idea, however I prefer my first poster 

I also created colour variations of this poster using the colour balance tool

‘Carlisle is Resilient’ Poster Development 

The second idea I developed was the poster for the theme of ‘Resilient.’ I chose to portray Carlisle Castle for this poster, one of the most recognisable landmarks in the city. Being over 930 years old it has existed for a very long time.

I had a number of photographs already which I planned to work from taken during Carlisle’s ‘City of Lights’ event, and I had drawn my thumbnails for this poster with these images in mind. 

I chose to work from the last two images as they were taken opposite the castle outside of Tullie House Museum, and this would fit with the brief being completed for Tullie itself.

I again, as with the first two posters I created, began with simple shapes to map out my design idea.

Further development poster 2

The font I used for this poster is ‘Copperplate’.

I made colour variations using colour balance