Human Rights Posters
As a design exercise, my design class was tasked with picking one article from the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights to display with nine different ways of organizing text. I chose Article 24, which reads:
“Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.”
See the final posters directly below, and continue scrolling to see some process photos.
Sketching
Working within the boundaries of specific text alignment formats was easy, but the creativity came with matching the text with shapes and images that were relevant to the actual content of the words. Using basic shapes, I leaned into imagery of a calendar, money, and forms of recreation. My modular format example is mimicking the pattern of a soccer ball, arguably the most universally understood sport across the globe.
I also tried to create a juxtaposition of structured, squared shapes & corporate-feeling typefaces against lots of circles and smoothness to create a harmony of work-life balance.
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Charts & Balance
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Calendar
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Work-Life
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By The Sea
Drafting
I began with black & white shapes to have a feel for the depth and contrast of my posters before committing to a color scheme. These drafts were primarily focusing on the structure of my text and shapes. I made multiple designs of each format, so there are some extras here that didn’t make it to the final nine.
My initial drafts in color were using a dark, desaturated purple where I had used my darkest gray in the previous sketches. I intended on having this purple against soft yellows and blues to demonstrate a balance, but the darkness of it was making the work aspect feel like a black hole.
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Soccer
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Office Building
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Sunrise, Sunset
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On the Water
I decided to plunge my color scheme all the way into the relaxation aspect of my chosen article. In the final designs, the use of gradients, simple shapes, and bright summery colors work together to balance the structure and rigidity of the text.
