“The Rematch” Poster

Earlier this year, an international friendly match United States Women’s national team was organised for June 2^nd 2013 at BMO Field in Toronto. This match against the Americans was the first time the two teams would clash since the dramatic semi-final at the Women’s Olympic Football tournament at the London 2012 Olympics.

The inspiration behind the marketing campaign visuals was the War of 1812, which had just celebrated its centennial. The announcement to the media was made at Fort York near Toronto, one of the key locations of the war.

With the War of 1812 in mind, I designed a poster that would literally transform the soccer field into a battlefield filled with smoke with captain Christine Sinclair kicking the ball as if it was a canon ball.

The match CAN v USA was Sold-out with the first hour and set a record crowd at BMO Field.

 Copyright Canada Soccer 2013, by Dany Pépin

School project S6 – Aids initiative poster

This poster project was targeting another social awareness subject: Aids. The objective was to promote the Federal government initiative to fight against HIV / AIDS in Canada. This initiative provides funding for different prevention and support programs.

The first poster symbolizes all the support given by the population and AIDS programs. A group of red ribbons forming a balloon supports the AIDS victims. The hand-written words “Together we can support AIDS victims” ties with the poster’s visuals.

This poster is one of a series of three. Two hands holding in the shape of a heart with a mosaic of symbols in the background representing heterosexual and gay couples. The hand-written word “Together we can fight the prejudice of AIDS” ties again with the support given by the different AIDS programs and the population.

This poster was not submitted because it didn’t tie well with the government initiative. Nevertheless, I posted it because I liked the idea.

All the posters below were abandoned ideas and work-in-progress.

 copyright Dany Pepin 2012

School project S6 – Sandblasting kills

For this project we has to create a poster expressing the horrors resulting of sandblasting jeans. What’s wrong with sandblasting jeans? Look it up on google. Here is the translation of the text featured on my poster.

The damned of denim. Thousands of workers are condemned by the sandblasting of jeans. Exposure to silica dust cause irreversible lung disease called silicosis. It is contracted by workers who inhale it. This desease continues to grow even if the exposure has ceased. Many companies refuse to abandon the practice of sandblasting, including: … (logo of companies).

As you can see, my approach was the horror movie poster. It is a photo-montage of around 15 images and bit of digital painting from my part.

 copyright Dany Pepin 2012

School project S6 – The 2012 Student Exhibition

Each year for this project, graduating students need to create a poster, a directional sign and an invitation for the graphic design student exhibition. This year the tag line of the expo was “Warning: Creative Zone“, so we had to design our applications around this idea and include the 2012 color: Tangerine Tango. Lots of cool designs were created and three finalists were chosen. My design, which finished 3rd, represent a vibrating mass of creativity hovering inside a closed perimeter. I made the orange mass as alienish as possible. You can almost see it moving and transforming itself. The student exhibition will take place April 17th from 5PM to 8PM at La Nouvelle Scène in Ottawa (333 King-Edward ave.).

 copyright Dany Pepin 2012

School project S5 – Event posters

For this project we had to design 3 large format posters of variable sizes for a fictional event. Being somewhat of a geek, I chose an event I would like to see: Ottawa Comic-Con. It is a convention for fans of all kind (comics, sci-fi, horror, movies, TV, video games, etc).

Ottawa is a city with a rich architectural history, so going back in time graphically was an interesting idea. The overall look of the three types of posters is the “Art Nouveau” movement and the Vintage 40s with a touch of “propaganda” style. There’s a little “futurism” on the horizontal banner and triptych. These artistic styles feature many diagonal lines, perspective, movement and color desaturation. The chosen typography is the most representative elements of the time period illustrated in this poster. Although a vintage style is used, the mixture of minimalism and retro is very trendy nowadays. So this is a good marriage between the old and the new.

The parliament building has been used to identify the city of Ottawa. It is the architectural element most identifiable to Ottawa and is easily recognizable for Canadians and potential visitors of the convention. The new convention center is also represented more or less subtly on the three posters. The superhero representation is generic. It could be any superheros from Captain America to Batman

The poster

The title highly visible and the Peace Tower serves as a guideline to the bilingual information at the bottom right. The Superheros is transparent, otherwise we would have conflicted with the tower. It would also look as if it was ultraman or godzilla wanting to destroy the parliament while standing in the Ottawa river. The radiation effect brings attention to the parliament building and the fact that something is happening in Ottawa. The ground triangular texture is reminiscent of the new convention center.

The bus sign

Here, the big splash of color catches your attention and the direction of the superhero points to the title and the parliament. The irradiation is still a focus point on the parliament signifying the event in the capital. The motion effect of the flying superhero is reminiscent of the futurism style (repetitions) and the convention center is represented with its oval shape and triangular texture.

The triptych

The triptych was a good challenge especially if when you want to keep continuity between the posters but also for each part to convey its message. The title banner placed on the left draws attention and the eye follow the flying superhero (with the splash of yellow) and then goes to the convention center and the information. Then the eye goes back up to the silhouette who is looking at the parliament building closing the loop. It is a story from right to left. The hero first sees a threat, then it activates his powers and flies away.

copyright 2011

School project S4 – LAFF poster

For this illustration project, we had to create a poster for a real client, The Latin American Film Festival in Ottawa (March 17-27 2011). My poster won the competition and will be posted all over the city.

My concept behind the poster was to feature Latin America and its culture. I chose a hot pepper as the focus of this piece because it symbolizes the strength and the warmth of it people and because its shape can resemble the South-American continent. From a good distance you only see a pepper with text wrapped around it, but those who will look closely will be able to see all the culture elements (art, history, entertainment, etc.) surrounding it. Since the Latin American culture is colorful and festive, I added some ribbons on a bright yellow background, which creates contrast. The left image below is the original illustration while the right image is the edited version has with the client modifications.

 copyright 2011

School project S4 : Design conference poster

For this project we had to create a poster for a design conference hosted by a known designer (local or international). The target audience was the local creating community. From a list provided by the teacher, I picked Barbara Jacques from the firm Identica in Montreal.

The concept for this piece is simple, I played with the name identica, and wanted to show the individuality of the company that lives in the shadows of Cossette communications. What is the best symbol for individuality an identity… a fingerprint, a bar code, DNA? Yes, DNA! So instead of using the DNA double helix, I decided to design something that looks like the DNA dye-terminator sequencing and include a custom typography that would merge with the horizontal segments. A little contrast would make the letter stand out. The custom typo (title and host) is especially readable from a good distance. The informative text is placed in the lower right corner to balance the custom typo which is slighly on the left. The informative typo, recalls technology and the advancement in genetic science.

 copyright 2011

School project S3 – UNESCO poster

For this project, we must create a poster for UNESCO, which puts forward the rapprochement of cultures and the importance of exchange and dialogue.

The idea behind the first poster is to express that humanity (which is peculiar to man) is what brings cultures together. This idea is also the title of this poster.

In this concept, the primary and secondary colors represent the differences culture of the inhabitants of Earth. The primary colors mixed together create the secondary colors expressing the existing fusion between certain cultures. Each culture is represented here by a thread of paint flowing slowly and forming a growing puddle. Gradually, each culture extends and joins another. Slowly they move towards the center of the figure where the word “humanity” is written with a drizzle of black paint. This is the final goal, when all cultures comes together.

As mentioned above, humanity is what is uniquely human and thus all cultures forming a mixture of all colors. The colors create a cultural mosaic which, while uniting, keep their brightness (traditions) and coexist harmoniously. This mosaic is also in the form of a flower which symbolizes life and beauty.

The typography of the poster is expressed in two stages. First, the choice of modern sans serif font is used to clearly indicate the information “International Year of Rapprochement of Cultures”. Secondly, the title “Humanity” is made from a script typeface that has been adapted subsequently to increase the appearance of viscous paint. The title has a strong contrast with the background and the circular shape of the mosaic that surrounds it create emphasis on the word humanity.

Finally, the poster shows implicitly, cultural diversity and the reconciliation of different cultures to contribute to human progress.

The second poster, which was not submitted for grading, shows a magnetic field in multiple colors representing the cultures. They are all attracted to the center where the word “Unity” (the title) is placed.

Unfortunately, I got my worst grade in three semester for this project, and it could not have happen in a worst time.

 copyright 2010

School project S3 – Movie poster

For this illustration project, we had to create a movie poster without using any of the characters or actors of that particular movie. I chose the classic horror movie The Shining from the list of predetermined movies provided by the teacher. The poster shows the front of Danny’s tricycle stopped in front of a pool of blood. If you’ve seen the movie you’ll know which scene it represents. The association of a young kid and blood is disturbing and that was the objective of this poster… create an interest. To make it darker and creepier, I added a shade of green over the entire painting and desaturated the colors. The first version (left) was the poster submitted for grading while the second version with the shadow (right) was a bit too busy for my taste. Again, this digital illustration was handpainted in photoshop with a Wacom tablet.

 copyright 2010

School project S3 – Absolut Vodka Ad

For this project we had to make a fake Absolut Vodka ad, in the style of one of our favorite illustrator. We didn’t know about the project when our teacher ask each student two pick two of their favorite illustrators and show the class some of the work they do. I my case, I had chosen Drew Struzan and Frank Frazetta. Then, he announced that we had to make an Absolut Vodka ad in the style of one of our two chosen illustrators. That was a surprise, and I might not have picked those two illustrators/painters because they do highly detailed work. I picked Frank Frazetta because I’m a fan of his Conan book covers. The final result is my best illustrative work ever. This digital painting was done entirely in photoshop with a Wacom tablet and took me around 22 hours to complete. If you are curious, you can see the “making of” videos by following this link. The title Absolut Quest stand for the challenge Conan faces to get to the Absolut Vodka bottle protected by a giant snake.

 copyright 2010