Greetings once again from the famed Keuka College field period student, Cas Allport. You may know me from my work, or at least I hope you do considering the time I put into those posters in regards to look, branding, and content. But of course if you hate them I absolutely did not make them. I have no idea who made those terrible posters you hate.
But I’m not here today to talk about posters I may or may not have made. I’ve done enough of that these past few weeks. My field period experience is, if I had to estimate, about two thirds of the way through, and in working on my most recent project I have definitely picked up a lot.
Self publishing was definitely something I knew about prior to this venture. But knowing about things and knowing about things are two completely different animals. Self publishing previously had existed as this vague concept to me, something I knew existed and I knew you could do but had no real practical knowledge of. I had no idea how one got self published, the costs involved, or really the end product.
As such, the research project I’m currently undertaking has been a very enlightening experience. For the past few weeks–very sporadically for a few of the said weeks if I’m being honest– I’ve discovered a plethora of different platforms and methods for publishing. It really made the idea seem more accessible–I know, I know, self publishing is supposed to be accessible on its face but I am easily intimidated– and possible to do it myself one day. The reach of self published works is much further than I thought it was as well, though I really should have figured it out considering Amazon practically owns the world at this point.
If I was going to talk about those posters, which I said I wouldn’t so obviously I won’t, I would say this. Creating a brand identity as an organization is important, and there’s many factors that go into that brand identity. One of the most salient things that I had to consider in the posters that I created–or maybe didn’t create– was incorporating the brand color palette. The FLARE logo has a distinctive color palette, evoking the lakes of the region with the blues and the pop of brightness in the yellow. It was important to me in creating the posters that when the logo was added, it would fit in with the rest of the flier seamlessly. Having distinctive branding–especially with colors– makes it so that seeing the elements of your branding in completely separate circumstances still evokes thoughts of your organization. Why do you think Home Depot has a trademark on their iconic shade of orange?
Whether I was truly successful on that front isn’t really up to me, though. With all the time and effort I put into the fliers, I must sacrifice them on the pyre of public opinion. But isn’t that what being an author or artist is all about?
