Há Estrelas na Fábrica | Promo |
"Há Estrelas na Fábrica" (There are Stars in Fábrica) is a series of talks on astronomy promoted by Fábrica Centro Ciência Viva de Aveiro for the science center evening program.
With speakers specialized in different areas, from an astrophotographer to an astrobiologist, the talks aim to offer a glimpse of the work done in the field, discuss historic events and give insights related to current affairs.
What was asked?
. It had to be easily recognizable.
More or less from the beginning I was set on the Solar System. It fit that requisite and one way or another touched on all the talks' subjects.
. It had to fit the brand.
Most of Fábrica's contents are aimed at children so the visuals are colorful and bright. "Há Estrelas na Fábrica" targets an adult audience so it had to have a sharper and slightly more sophisticated feel but I didn't want to lose the colors. After stumbling upon some gorgeous astronomy posters by Simon C. Page I decided on a geometric aesthetic with flat bright/saturated colors on a dark background.
Software: Adobe Illustrator.
Since the geometric aesthetic was set early on I skipped the sketch and started digitally.
I laid the dark background restricted the colors to yellows, reds and blues to keep it balanced. With all elements in place the design was still bland. It lacked detail and contrast. Adding light and shadow solved it beautifully.
Finally, to allow the illustration to shine I incorporated the title into the design and pushed the text box down. The font, Jaapoki by Mikko Nuuttila, was carefully picked and tweaked to match the geometric design of the background.
The final design was met with positive reviews and it seems to be well received in general.
My lesson from this project was "do your homework". When I have to design/illustrate I always do my research. Unless you have a clear idea it never hurts to see how others solved the problem. This time I spent a considerable amount of time looking at how other professionals depicted the theme and it sped up the whole process.
All things considered it was a dream project. I hope to do more space related designs in the future.