Instructional Infographic Design
The Murder of Robert the Houseplant
Brief: Develop your skills in creating instructional/infographic posters that effectively communicate information visually. Choose a topic that requires step-by-step instructions or information that can be presented visually in a poster format. It is important that the topic chosen is interesting, unique, and fun.
Challenge: My objective with this project was to create a comical, yet informative poster about the care of plants. This is meant to be a "murder" or "detective" board, similar to what you may see in the movies. The viewer is led through the stages of death in a houseplant while being provided with secondary clues and information about plant care.
Role: Research, Visual Design, Illustration, Printing
Application & Equipment: Adobe Illustrator, Procreate
Client: Class project
Poster Design
For the design of my poster, I landed on the idea of creating a murder mystery board, for Richard the plant. I chose this idea because I thought it was funny and it was something that I had a lot of ideas for. My goal with this poster was to deliver information about plant care in a new, fun, and interesting way. I wanted to make it look chaotic without being too overwhelming, and I wanted to give the plant behind the story a little bit of a personality. I am very happy with how the design of this poster turned out and I really enjoyed the process of creating it.
Research Methodology
When I began this project, the very first bit of research I did was through Behance itself. I created a mood board full of different infographic or instructional posters and I compiled all of the ones that interested me the most. Then, once I solidified the concept of my poster, I looked at more specific images on google for detective board inspiration specifically. I organized everything on this Milanote board.
Sketching
My next step in designing my poster included many hours of brainstorming and sketching. I bounced from idea to idea and once I had a couple of layouts I felt comfortable with, I sketched them out. As you can see, the sketch on the right is more refined and this is when I thought of my detective/murder board idea. I was so excited that I didn't create a more in-depth sketch than this, but I definitely had an exact vision in my head from this point on.
Reflection
I would be lying if I said I didn't like this project! I loved the prompt and I fell in love with the concept of my idea, and this made it so easy for me to work on getting everything done. Plants are a personal passion of mine and so it makes me happy that I am able to give somebody who's new into this hobby a few pieces of advice that I wish I had when I started. I didn't encounter too many problems, the biggest block for me was towards the beginning. During my sketching/brainstorming phase, I shuffled between a few different poster designs and iterations of my concept and I was really unsure of which route to take. But, once the murder board idea popped into my head I regained my motivation and everything was smooth from there! Ultimately, I am very happy with how my poster turned out. I am proud of my concept and design, and I don't think I would change anything even if I were given more time. I made successful typography my goal with this project and I think I accomplished that!
