Computer Based Art: Event Poster Design

This assignment was to take an event and design a poster for it using only Adobe Illustrator.  I think this is a pretty basic assignment that you would have at any school you go to.  The Red Bull Soapbox Race was actually coming to Dallas the weekend after the assignment was handed out, so I thought it would be the perfect even to do my poster on because I could get pretty creative with it.  Eric, the love of my life, and I decided to do some good "research" and go to the race.  Here's some pictures:

 We had a really fun time!  Next time we're going to the Flugtog!

So when I got home I started sketching out what I wanted to do with my poster.  I don't have my sketches anymore but some of my best ideas were:

1. To play off of the Red Bull logo and put two tricked out Soapbox cars where the bulls should be.  I would make the images look like paper cutouts on a handmade sign.

2. Use the first idea but have the horns of a bull poking out through the top corners of the poster as if it had charged the wall behind the poster.

3. Create an image where the bull was chasing a driver down the drag strip.  Originally I wanted the driver to be coming in diagonally but I decided later to change that.

I had several other ideas but I ended up deciding on the last one.  My first draft was really flat and cartoon looking but that was sort of the style I was going for.

 

I wasn't really happy with the way this one turned out.  The colors were too desaturated and it just looked too flat to me.  I played with the shapes a little and added gradients for the second draft.

 I had this one printed out and ready to turn in on the due date but then our instructor extended the deadline. Although it was better than the first one I still wasn't 100% happy with the result so I was thankful for the extra time.  My instructor suggested I make the eyes look meaner, so I played with that and then chose more saturated colors.  I softened up the smoke clouds with a feather and added flames.  I'm relatively happy with the final result.  If we would have been able to use Photoshop I would have made it awesome.