The Poster That Fails Its Brief
A student designs an A2 poster for a community music festival. The brief specifies: the event name must be legible from 5 m, the date and venue must be readable at 1 m, the design must work for both print and a social media square crop, and it must use the festival's two brand colours (a deep navy and a warm yellow). The student's draft places the event name in a thin script typeface at 60 pt, sets the date and venue in 14 pt navy on a navy background, and fills the background with a photographic crowd image. For the social media version, the student simply crops the A2 layout to a square, cutting off the right third of the event name. The student argues the design is 'bold and atmospheric'.
1. Assess the draft against each element of the brief, explaining which failures are functional and which are aesthetic.
Read the worked answer
Functional failures: the 60 pt thin script event name will not be legible at 5 m, because thin strokes and script forms lose definition at distance; a bold sans-serif at a much larger size would be needed. The 14 pt navy-on-navy date and venue fails contrast entirely and will not read at 1 m, let alone in poor light; this is a functional legibility failure, not a stylistic preference. The square crop cuts the event name, which is a functional failure of the cross-format requirement: the design does not adapt, it is merely truncated. Aesthetic choices: the photographic crowd background and the 'bold and atmospheric' intention are legitimate design directions, but atmosphere cannot compensate for illegibility. The brand colours are technically used, but navy text on a navy ground means the yellow is absent where contrast is most needed. The judgement is that the draft meets the brief's mood but fails its communication requirements, and communication requirements take priority in an informational poster.
2. Recommend specific revisions that resolve the functional failures while retaining the student's atmospheric intention.
Read the worked answer
Retain the crowd photograph but reduce its dominance: apply a navy overlay or gradient so the image becomes texture rather than competing content, preserving atmosphere while creating a calm field for type. Set the event name in a bold, high-contrast typeface at a size tested for 5 m legibility (for an A2 poster, roughly 100–150 pt depending on the face), in warm yellow against the navy field. Set the date and venue at a size and weight that reads at 1 m, in yellow or white on navy to achieve strong contrast, and group them as a clear information block. For the social media version, do not crop the A2 layout; rebuild a square composition that keeps the event name intact, perhaps with the photograph filling the square and the type block repositioned. Test both versions by viewing the A2 from 5 m and the square on a phone screen. This keeps the atmospheric photograph and brand palette while meeting every legibility and format requirement.