Kelly Walters
Kelly Walters is an artist, designer, researcher, and educator from Stamford, Connecticut. She founded Bright Polka Dot, a multidisciplinary studio focused on print, digital campaigns, displays, and textiles for artists and cultural institutions. Her work centers on race, identity, and Black visual culture through writing, teaching, and design.
Goal
Design a poster inspired by Kelly Walters, use her designs as inspiration, create a font, and design a type-driven poster using the font created.
Role:
Graphic Designer
Tools:
Illustrator & Photoshop
Hats worn:
Researcher, Creative Director & Illustrator
Target Audience
People who are passionate and appreciative of a wide range of artistic expressions.
Problem to solve
There are several challenges involved in creating a type-driven poster. Creating a design that feels fresh and original can be challenging, given that so many type-driven posters exist, especially when it comes to revealing the gender of the artist.
How might we design an art piece depicting Kelly Walters as a creative lady?
Process
Researched Kelly Walters, read her biography, and reviewed her past projects to gain an understanding of her style. Sketches derived from the compilation of her artworks in the mood board were then digitalized.
Research
Ideation
Sketch
Digital
Final Solution
The first variation is clean but does not give a typography-driven poster feel. The second variation was selected because one could tell it was typography-driven, and Kelly Walters is a lady.
Outcomes
Kelly Walters' poster received positive responses and stimulated interest in learning more about her journey as an artist, graphic designer, researcher, and educator.
Key Learnings
As a result of working on this project, I learned the power of mood boards in influencing a design process.
