Introducing Bret Victor 0- Poster

Communications Studio | 2022 Spring

Who is he and why did I pick him?

Everyone around me was frantically job/ interview searching at the time, and I just so was starting to question and become anxious about that as well. What type of designer inspires me and why? How would I know that? But then, I came across one of Notion’s job qualifications — “to be familiar with the work of computing heroes like Douglas Engelbart, Alan Kay, and Bret Victor”. Knowing nothing about these people, I spent a couple of hours on a deep dive into who they are and found myself learning about all these concepts and projects that shaped what IoT is today. From Victor’s website, I was surprised to find an outdated early 2000s style website filled with content that expressed his personality, design philosophy, work process, personal interests, and sense of humour. His work does not fit into the category of a sophisticated visual based design work, which seems contradictory to this project’s purpose. However, I thought it would be interesting to use this as an opportunity for me to integrate my own style and create a brand for his work. Thinking about how this project continues for a whole semester, I figured it would be nice to use this time to really understand the material.

Rough Impressions

Here are some screenshots I pulled from Victor’s websites

I tried to look for motifs and graphic styles that he uses to create ideas for a possible asset library. Though some projects are well photographed, the resolution of these images remains insufficient for anything picture-based. I started to think about anti-design and texture/ vector-based visuals to play into that issue.

Here is a low-fi poster I assembled in Figma by playing with layer modes and random screenshots. It helped give me some ideas in terms of color.

Moodboard

all the font websites lol

On top of all the resources, my TAs shared, I also used a book called Indie Type by Shaoqiang Wang. It contained QR codes linked to font websites as well as branding projects that use these typefaces. This definitely played a big part in shaping his identity. Though it seems that the geometrical/ computation style typefaces were more fitting for Victor’s work, I still found myself drawn to the elegant serif fonts. Maybe because he expresses himself as a romantic as we can see from his stretch goal.

This board is not his work, but things I’ve found that inspired me.

Understanding his work

Sketching Ideas

Since all the assets on his portfolio are very low resolution, I had to start with some procreate and illustrator asset creation. I managed to create some shapes and forms based on Victor’s data visualization work and motifs from his website, but it was still a small library of assets. His windmill logo has a big presence in his brand and I wanted to take this chance to redesign these assets in a proper manner, fitting to an aesthetic for a romantic with a profession as a computational designer.

Playing with these shapes across the artboard, I wanted each sketch to have a different composition without regard for information details. This allowed me to be bold with the use of shapes and typography. Despite having a chaotic look, these sketches still follow a certain grid to achieve a balance between chaos and order. This style fits his personality as a figure who often thinks outside of the box, is outspoken about his opinions, and jokes all the time, yet is extremely serious about building a utopia through design.

Feedback

1. instead of blowing up an image to fill in space, think about how multiple assets can build each other to form a composition
2. Interesting placement of type, some more conventional than others, the dash is very fitting
3. typefaces chosen are very different, the futuristic and brutalist typeface is suits the “tech vibe” but the elegant typeface also creates a contrast that is similar to Victor’s brand
4. the portrait-become-asset is eyecatching
5. the glitchy tree creates an interesting texture
6. generative shapes could become more of a focal point in the composition
7. be playful with the body text too
8. VECTORIZE EVERYTHING

Posters 1.0

Feedback

After pinning these two posters on the wall, each student picked “the better one” by posting a sticky note next to it. Even though I spent hours making the first poster, and minutes making the second one, I was surprised to find the latter getting more sticky notes.

poster 1

First Poster:

1. the use of ASCII symbols to patterns Victor’s portrait was very fitting and they liked how it was also a texture
2. the text box placement is nice though the distance between each paragraph should be shortened
3. the timeline graph does not fit with the rest of the poster
4. the crescent and circular shapes create a good entry point

poster 2

Second Poster:

1. the glitchiness and vibrant colors of the flowers after being printed caught their eye
2. the portrait is not effective anymore as it feels out of place
3. the timeline created by the boxes is very effective, like it like it
4. multiple font weights in the quote are not really working, try out more things that are simpler

Poster 2.0

The “Incubated” motif is something that I wanted to focus on the most. With this in mind, I thought of incorporating 3d rendered graphics to add some dimension and futuristic textures.

I then pulled the image into photoshop to see what else I could do to alter the graphic. Here are some versions:

Interview Opportunity?

Talking to friends, I learned that people were emailing their designers in hopes of an interview. Though they are public figures, there is a high possibility that they would be willing to support students and help them learn about design. I was first intimidated by the idea, but when looking through Victor’s website, I found this graphic, and instantly I realized that he might be more down to earth and considerate than I thought.

Anyways, we shall see what happens. Let’s work on the poster first.

I used the bonding boxes as a timeline to point out some of Victor’s key moments in his career, stretching the portrait to resemble the shapes of misty clouds as it weaves between the crescent shape. At this point, I was confident with the direction, but the type needed more refining in terms of placement and hierarchy.

Feedback

• The flower bud green feels unnatural
• question the placement of the quote as it lacks purpose
• question the circles as it is only on the left side
• too much tension between the body text and the timeline section
• Still need to show Victor’s work somewhere, maybe mini thumbnails in the timeline section?

Poster 3.0

After tweaking the errors from my last critique, I decided to play around with color modes such as inversing. Instead of a true black, I thought a slight purple tint would add to the atmosphere.

Feedback

• typesetting the quote
• create hierarchy within timeline text
• be aware of tangents in the timeline
• play with more types of body text rag

Final Version

Conclusions

Considering the worries I had at the beginning of the project, I think it went well and I very much enjoyed having the creative freedom. Even after looking at this poster now, I still feel like there could be more changes made, but you can never really finish a design. The main purpose of a poster is to catch one’s interest and ask them to explore something more in-depth, so instead on dwelling on that, it is time to move on to the next portion!