THRIFT SALE POSTER
I had the privilege of designing and art directing the poster to advertise the largest thrifting event at Cal State Long Beach. This event was a collaboration between the three biggest fashion clubs on campus. Designing the poster from scratch presented several challenges and gave me the opportunity to develop creative solutions.
Enjoy and thank you for taking a look!
SCOPE: Signage for Campus Couture, Students In Fashion, and Thrift Club.
Originally, I started with a simple bleed effect for the poster’s header, but it felt a bit lackluster and didn’t convey the right direction. Since this was a thrifting event, I wanted the typography to reflect that vibe more strongly.
After reconsidering, I looked around my desk and found some old Thrasher Skateboarding magazines. I thought, “What better way to express the feeling of thrifting than by using actual vintage magazines for the type?” This approach perfectly captures the themes of thrifting, reusability, recycling, and repurposing.
From there, I cut out the letters I needed and scanned them using my printer. Then, I isolated the letters digitally and adjusted their hue and saturation to enhance the vintage feel.
From the start, I knew I wanted the recycling symbol to be the main graphic to represent the themes of thrifting. I began by gathering a pile of clothes in my room and photographing them. Then, I created a recycling symbol in Illustrator and applied a simple clipping mask.
However, like with the typography, I had second thoughts about this direction. While the clipping mask worked, it felt flat and lacked character and it was too simple for my liking.
So, I decided to take a more unorthodox approach. I reminded myself that “fabric is malleable.” Using pieces of clothing from the pile, I physically shaped them into the recycling symbol. Since the color of my bedroom floor was too dark to easily isolate the clothes, I placed white paper underneath to create a contrasting backdrop.