VINTAGE POSTER
Digital Artwork
RMIT University Project
November 2021
The goal of the project was to create an illustration based on a photo chosen from the State Library of Victoria in the public domain, in the style of a classic travel poster. My design depicts the iconic Carlton Hotel located on Bourke St in Melbourne CBD. Designed by Smith Ogg & Serpell, the Carlton Hotel was completed in 1937. It comprises five floors of textured bricks and features a shop verandah on the first floor. The symmetrical design and placement of the windows reflect the influence of Renaissance-style architecture.
Finished vintage poster
Vintage poster with additional texture
The poster was created using a decorative and pictorial illustration technique in the style of vintage travel posters. My main focus was to address the common traits of vintage travel posters including, the use of a border, muted colour scheme, forms with highlights, mid-tones and shadows, texture, and typography, with the name of the building and its location.
The two images show details of the finished illustration (left) with additional texture to achieve a retro travel poster look (right).
Original image used as the basis for the illustration
Concept sketch and colour palette
I first looked for a colour formula suitable for my travel poster illustration. I balanced primary colours with more muted tones by applying percentage tints of colour swatches to bring the strength of the colour down. Blue, brown, green, and a pop of yellow formed the colour basis of my design. Forms with highlights, mid-tones and shadows set in a tint of brown were created to give depth to the layout. A texture was added to the illustrative parts of my poster to achieve a retro travel poster look.
The choice of Bodoni for the signage, Gill Sans for the writing ‘Melbourne’ on the bottom of the illustration, along with the Paytone One and Birthstone typefaces used for the name of the building, helped me pull the poster design together, anchoring the artwork in a particular time and place.
The final outcome mirrored the vision I had in mind with an illustration that features bold, simple text and a soft colour scheme that resembles the style of retro travel posters.