When looking to create a poster for the Pearlstein Gallery here at Drexel for Harry Bertoia’s Diamond Lounge Chair, I wanted to do more than just show an image of the chair itself and be done with it.
I started off by using photos of the chair I found on the internet and playing with some basic ideas of composition.
The chair itself is a mix of industrial material shaped into organic forms. The grid pattern allows for significant movement to be portrayed two-dimensionally, which worked well in this medium.
The light filters through the gaps in the chair and reflects on the metal surface, creating highlights.
I knew early on that I wanted the lighting to shine in whatever composition I came up with.
The first idea I had was to frame the chair in a shaft of light, perhaps with an interesting pattern falling over it, but I felt that distracted from the form of the chair itself.
Next I thought to place the chair in a dimly lit environment in order to make the highlights stand out.
The third concept shares many features with the end result I settled on – zooming in on the details of the chair in order to abstract it, but my original sketch for the idea did not leave enough blank space which left the composition feeling cluttered, especially when I went to add in the text. Additionally, I needed to change where I was zooming in so as not to abstract the form beyond recognition.
The fourth concept zoomed back out leaving a very minimal composition. I used criss-crossing lines of text to mirror the metal grid pattern of the chair itself, but I worried about readability and ended up scrapping the idea. I wanted the form of the chair to speak on its own without the need for any other significant graphic elements.
This is the composition I came up with. I wanted the color of the metal and the background to be very similar in tone, allowing for the highlights to stand out the most. I zoomed in on the chair in a way that showed off the uniqueness of the form, but left enough identifiable features to make it recognizable as a chair.
Areas closer to the viewer have higher levels of detail and contrast, while those further away are simplified to create depth.
The graphic was made entirely in Adobe Illustrator from start to finish – this allowed me to use a limited color palette rather than having a full range.
I experimented with multiple variants of color palette – the chair itself was multiple shades of the same color, while the background was a contrasting color with a similar tone to the body of the chair. I settled on a deep blue for the background and a rust-red for the chair itself.
Next I worked on the overall feel of the color palette – I settled on a dustier version of my colors, bringing in that industrial edge and allowing the form of the chair to speak the loudest.
The colors are reminiscent of oxidized metal and rust, bringing in some natural and earthy tones to the industrial construction.
