ENTRY FOR AN INTERNATIONAL POSTER COMPETITION
The Lapinlahti Foundation organized an open-call poster competition in favor of art, culture, and mental well-being in Helsinki, Finland. Out of 330 entries around the globe, my poster was chosen in the top 24. Selected posters were exhibited as part of the Lapinlahti Loves Art and Life festival, which took place July 9.–10.
My poster was on show among 23 other designs. Photos by Sasu Nissilä.
Save Lapinlahti with a Poster exhibition during Lapinlahti Loves Art and Life festival. Photo by Sasu Nissilä.
SAVE LAPINLAHTI – LITERALLY AND FIGURATIVELY
The poster design is based on a playful interpretation of the word save. Visual connotations (checkered background, gray dialogue box) denote editing software Photoshop. Often Photoshop gives the option Don't Save (as seen below) when saving a document. However, this is not given in the case of saving Lapinlahti.
SAVE LAPINLAHTI – FINAL POSTER
Here's the final poster design.
Final poster design. The photo was taken by Salokorpi, A. in Lapinlahdentie, Helsinki. Source: helsinkikuvia.fi. License: CC BY 4.0
SKETCHES
Below you can see some of the sketches and process (from latest to earliest). I experimented with different variations, of which I choose to show only a fraction. For example, I designed alternatives to the dialogue box. The visual language borrows elements from Adobe Photoshop. From the get-go, I chose the color red to communicate urgency.
The initial idea for the poster came through during a yoga session. The picture above is a screenshot I took in Photoshop. This was quick and dirty prototyping, just to get more ideas rolling. In the end, I decided to remove the Don't Save -option from the final poster, to emphasize the message of "the only option is to save Lapinlahti."