Photoshop II Final: Event Poster

In Spring 2024, I took Photoshop II, and our final project involved creating a poster for either a real or fictional event. Around that time, Deadmau5 announced his retro5pective tour, which inspired me to design a poster for his performances at Red Rocks.

Requirements

It’s been almost six months since I completed the project, so some details are a bit hazy. However, I recall needing to include a style guide, a text effect, a photo effect, the event's time, date, and location, as well as a reference to the fictional sponsor, BIG Music.

Image Challenges

Finding suitable photos of the Cube v3 stage set proved difficult, as many of the best options came with expensive licensing fees. Eventually, I found a solid selection in an album on Imgur and experimented with a few. I ultimately settled on the third image.

Style Guide

Through my research, I learned that Deadmau5 frequently uses Arial with negative tracking in his branding. While some of the tour materials featured a white background and a red mau5head, I opted for a black background with an off-white tone. Using the image I selected, I built the color scheme around red and blue elements.

Text Effect

For the "5" in "retro5pective," I applied Panter's Motion Blur effect, though I used a less aggressive angle to align it with the lighting in the image. This effect emphasized the “5” and appeared similar to the center image stage lights.

Other

I edited the central image by separating the color channels and applying motion blurs in different directions. This compensated for the lower image resolution and created an anaglyph-like effect. I also applied a gradient mask at the bottom to fade the image before the body copy, along with a drop shadow under the "deadmau5" header text to complement the stage lights.

Conclusion

I don’t usually consider Photoshop the best tool for creating a full poster, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well it handled the entire project. I look forward to experimenting with concert posters for other artists and sharing them when I do.