The development of a compelling visual design system seeks to unify a system's differing components yet instill excitement through its innovative representation of meaning. This project focuses on the manipulation and arrangement (composition) of typography and image as it conveys messages through a poster series.

I utilized a variety of design methods to communicate each part of this overall concept. To visually translate what each of their music styles sounded like, I considered image warping methods, typographic texture, and overall color palette. I chose a different complementary color palette for each poster for a couple of reasons. One, complementary colors contrast each other the most, and therefore the instruments would jump off the page even more. And two, I wanted the posters to encapsulate the brightness and vibrancy of music that jazz, specifically, has always epitomized. The warped instruments represent Hwang’s erratic sound. On the piano, I used a curved piano image to represent the fluidity of Waller’s style. I also wanted to convey the patterns and beats of their music by creating various typographic textures, using different letter widths and thicknesses in their names. Lastly, I used fragmentation throughout all three of my posters by having the text of their names be
disrupted by or interact with the instrument they played, conveying that their names and music go hand-and-hand and that their music broke stylistic boundaries by having the text of their names and their instruments' images overlap each posters' surrounding white border.

CITATIONS
“Eastside Music Ltd.” Eastside Music Ltd.,
https://www.eastsidemusicltd.com/cornet-rental/.

Haas, Matthias. “123rf.Com.” 123rf.Com,
https://www.123rf.com/photo_7321630_piano-keyboard-render.html.

“Sullivan Violins.” Sullivan Violins,
http://www.sullivanviolins.com/Vintage-Andreas-Eastman-Violin-Model-200-2015--18-
Size_p_1349.html.

My concept for this poster series for Sound Assertions: 3 Jazz Pioneers, a hypothetical event series focusing on the contributions of Buddy Bolden, Fats Waller, and Jason Kao Hwang to the jazz musical genre, was to spotlight the main instruments that each of these men used in their styles of jazz (Buddy Bolden on the cornet, Fats Waller on the piano, and Jason Kao Hwang on the violin.) Not only did I want to emphasize the difference in each of their instrumentation, but I also wanted to visually translate the different styles, rhythms, and patterns heard within their music, with Bolden’s style upbeat and lively, Waller’s smooth and melodic, and Hwang’s style unpredictable and eerie. Finally, I also wanted to convey their impact on the genre of jazz as a whole. How each of these three men’s music revolutionized the jazz musical landscape of their time and broke the boundaries of what jazz was thought to have been.