This poster was created for the Broadside Poem book at San Diego State University. The poem I chose to represent was Night Train by Ly Hoàng Ly. The poem is about an endless train ride through the night. I wanted to approach the design of the poster in more of an abstract technique to represent the feeling of being up late at night. As I read through the poem multiple times I thought about how I could depict the poem in a non-generic way. Instead of creating a train with words moving along with the train, I wanted to push myself out of the box and explore. At first, I thought of manipulating text on to the train with movement showing through the text onto the train, but that seemed too obvious of a solution, so I pushed myself to depict the poem alternately.
Print / Layout Design
Process
My process for this project consisted of researching various train images and sketching out ideas on how I could successfully depict an endless night. I went into photoshop and cut out the specific train image I decided on and began to manipulate it. Another key aspect of this poster I added was the focus of looking down a continuous stairwell because of how they make you feel like they go on forever. I decided to combine the two images and duplicate the train all around in the spiral. I specifically chose orange and blue tones to foreshadow night and day.
