In the initial designs the colours used were black, white and red. I realised that using a red tone, although bold and feminine, does not suite the purpose of the design. Red is a colour of violence and this exhibition is about celebrating the achievements of poetical suffragists who helped get the vote through non-violent means. A warm orange was then experimented with instead. This is to link to the original 'Bugler Girl' poster which the face is based off and used similar orange tones. Warm tones like this were very typical within suffragette design and Art Nouveau, so it felt far more appropriate to hark back to these colour pallets then use the harsh red tone.
From feedback it was suggested that in the original 'Bugler Girl' the women is holding the bugle almost horizontally, so it was strange that the words were nearly vertical. However, through doing horizontal experiments these didn't seem to work as well aesthetically - plus this negated from the idea of having an elongated rectangle as the consistent shape throughout the designs - this being one of the key features which makes it stand out as 'different'. So instead to make it resemble the Bugle girl better, the arm of the figure was experimented with and the shape of the face.
Different colour combinations were experimented with, testing the orange and the black as background tones. These all seemed to work well and seemed to look better when placed next to each other to show variety. For this reason this colours alternate throughout the final branding. For the poster however, black was chosen as the most striking and impacting design. A lot of the poetry being used for the exhibition talks about suffragists being a light in the dark for women stuck in dull/monotonous lives - so the 'WORDS' written in orange on the black background subtly show them being a light in the dark.
From feedback it was also suggested that the face of the figure looked too 'warrior-like'. This was intentional as the suffragist is being depicted as a warrior with words. The Bugler Girl is also dressed as a warrior so the reasoning was strong. However, the face almost looked too lifeless and the helmet appeared to be placed over the figures eyes - which was distracting. So new interpretations of the face began. The two shown below were unsuccessful because the helmet shapes were too ambiguous. The structure of the first image however, was taken forward in latter designs - as it was more life-like.
Different type was then experimented with for the details of the exhibition. It was decided that the type would be minimal and small to balance out the large 'WORDS' aspect of the design. Franklin Gothic was used primarily, which is sans serif to ensure that the design is still viewed as contemporary and modern - and balances the more traditional type used. Serif typeface Caslon was experimented with too, but this just appeared too old-fashioned. Since the official title of the exhibition is 'Words Not Deeds' to highlight this 'Words' was put in orange - to link it to the main title featured on the poster. This is something which worked well and again links to the 'light in the dark' concept.
The shape of the hand has also been experimented with in order to make it look more like the Bugler Girl. It is now shaped as if she is shouting, rather than holding the type up. This is far more effective and reminiscent of the original suffragette the design. The angle of the hands are also more consistent with the rest of the shapes within the design.
Finally, some further experimented were done with posters which were even more elongated. However, these seemed to stretched and some of the impact was being lost. It was important that 'WORDS' filled the page to have high impact and by having it longer, it was difficult to place them in a way which wouldn't leave negative space. The size of the posters above have a 3:6 ratio, which seemed more successful and was adopted for the flyers and the exhibition guide for consistency.
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