Wabash Travel Poster
Graphic Design
Project Overview
To demonstrate an awareness and knowledge of one of the design periods or styles that were discussed in class. The goal was to apply basic design principles and elements to a composition that integrates typography and images.
About the Design
Inspiration was drawn from a close family member who was an engineer for the Wabash railroad. Old World’s Fair posters were used as inspiration for overall design ascetics. Most inspiration was drawn from the colors used on the Wabash engines and the vintage radial designs from old posters. The final goal was to create a poster that could have been used as an advertisement piece back in the 1960’s.

Process

Reference & Sketches
I ended up searching for old World’s Fair posters, travel poster and train images as the primary platform to build my design off of.
Greyscale Design
An image of the train engine was brought into photoshop and was simplified to a certain number of greys. Each grey was painted on separate layers and exported out as an image and brought into Adobe Illustrator.
Vector Design
Photoshop layers were then live traced or created with shapes or the pen tool. Shapes were then given colors according to the reference images. Typography was then added last as the final touch to the design.
Final Product
After the final vector design was completed, I ended up printing only three posters. The artwork was digitally printed onto aluminum panels and adhered to a polished silver aluminum panel to act as a surrounding border.