Flyer Maker is a web-based app that makes you make flyers, or, if you will, a CMS (content making system).

Flyer Maker was composed using p5.js, a Javascript library intended for generative art. It serves as an exploration of conditional design and user generated content, and questions how such platforms influence the aesthetics of internet culture.

The application was inspired by public flyer kiosks and digital advertisement in public transportation hubs. Considering relationships in these formats led me to question the tool's context of use, and how it could apply across digital platforms.

After developing "Flyer Maker 1.0," a second iteration was built to accommodate for an image brush which allows users to upload and draw with image files. Flyer Maker stores image data separately from the vector arrays which hold their coordinates, so images can be replaced, but not the paths and scales along which they are rendered.

An initial round of example flyers were generated by re-presenting the content of flyers and posters seen around Baltimore City.

Upon completion, Flyer Maker was featured in MICA's annual Design League exhibition. The show's theme was based on exchange between people, places and things. A microsite was developed, providing app access, examples, and writing which expressed the piece's value as a tool for collaboration. Exhibition attendees were then able to make their own flyers, some of which are shown below.

Flyer Maker contains a script which calculates the amount of frames necessary to represent a single loop of animated type in the flyer, it uses this script to export the frames necessary to create a seamlessly looping gif in Photoshop (a workflow simplified with the use of a "load into stack" Photoshop script). It's way funner to mix up the frames than put them in order though.

Special thanks to Max Breaux, Mazzy Bell, Kaity Gmitter, Jack Coyle, Yoon Sun Shin, Hannamae Greenfield, Alec Cerminaro, Ellie Mac and Catherine Khamnouane for making flyers during the show.