This branding project was for the first Clemson Art Book Fair and Zine Fest, an assignment given to me through my advanced graphic design class. My goal when creating this was to create a visually appealing poster and merchandise that would be somewhat in line with the Clemson University branding while still maintaining creative freedom until future years when there could be more variation. I drew inspiration from collages and handmade zines, as a way to expand the knowledge about art books and zines so that more people would gain interest and want to participate going forward.
Inspired by these collages and handmade elements, I decided to try making a digital version of paper-based elements to use for my poster design.
The initial designs started with torn paper elements, similar to scrapbooking, and expanded to hill shapes as a reference to Clemson University’s slogan “There’s Something in these Hills”.
As I gained feedback from my peers and professor, I decided to pivot to real torn paper instead of a more digital look. This brought back the handmade element to the poster as per the initial inspiration of handmade zines. The shades of purple and orange deviate from the Clemson branding palette but stay in line enough to show that it is something different and still part of Clemson University.
