Ella Rock
ELLA ROCK        

Emerging from
Darkness:

Poster Series 
Poster design / Experimental typography
Spring 2023

Rabindranath Tagore, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Toni Morrison were 3 writers that left an unmistakable social and literature impact on their respective countries. This poster series pays homage to these writers, and the ways in which their writing was able to cut through injustice and darkness.


Research   


Process Sketches While sketching and ideating I continually came back to the idea of light. Each of these writers 
continually shed light on the voices of the marginalized and provided light to their country.  
 
   

Typographic
Free Play
During this process I experimented with analogue methods of manipulating typography in order to 
illustrate my concept. I tried everything from laying printed type under glass to projecting type on the wall.






Concept
Emerging from Darkness
Each of these writers wrote during times of darkness in their respective countries. Their writing 
served as a sense of light and hope in these times, reminding their countries that a better future 
was possible. I assigned one word to each writer that represented what they gave to their countries 
through their writing, and used typographic freeplay with a projector to visually represent this light.



Headline
Imagery 
I placed type from various headlines around the key words to illustrate the idea of the darkness these writers had to combat through their writing. 
 

 

Process
Iterations  
I placed type from various headlines around the key words to illustrate the idea of 
the darkness these writers had to combat through their writing. 
 

 

Typographic
Grid + Colors 
As part of my typographic system across the 3 posters, I had a systemically rotated grid. The first 
poster’s grid had no rotation, the second was rotated 5 degrees, and the final was rotated 10 degrees.

Each color was slected with key aspects of the writers work or backgrounds in mind. 
 



Finals