Jam Wong - Illuminate Posters

What is a poster?

That is the idea I wanted to challenge with this project. Posters are typically thought of as 2D images, static and flat. As our world has become more and more digital, the format of the poster has changed and designers have begun to experiment with form. However, I wanted to take that experimentation back into the physical world. Transformative posters seem to start and end on a computer screen where the web can support easy animation. I wanted to experiment with how posters could be transformed not only as digital artifacts but as physical artifacts as well. Through this project, I hoped to question our ideas of what a poster should be and how it should behave.

"Illuminate" is comprised of three main experiments, all stemming from five poster designs. The first experiment is double-sided printed posters with compiled video footage. The second is lenticular postcards of the poster designs. The third is an entirely digital prototype with a version optimized for desktop and for mobile.

Light has been central to many of my experiential projects. I find that light itself is transformational. For this project, I wanted to play with the idea that the physical artifacts don't change over time but rather, it is the different ways that light interacts with the pieces that changes them from our perspective. These interactions fit the medium, with light shining through the printed posters, light being refracted from the lenticular postcards, and the pixels of a screen lighting up in different hues for the digital prototype.

Thus, the title "Illuminate" comes from the word's definition, to supply or brighten with light. However, it is also derived from the lyrics sprinkled throughout these posters. While designing the posters, I took inspiration from Bo Burnham's INSIDE, a comedy special documenting Burnham's emotions during the pandemic lockdowns. The lyrics from this special's album display the dichotomy of feelings many of us experienced during covid and continue to be applicable to mental health struggles beyond the pandemic. These lyrics often show conflicting thoughts existing together nonetheless, relating back to how light can change our perspective but does not change what is actually there. So "Illuminate" also comes from the word's secondary meaning, to enlighten or bring to the fore.

Poster Video

The above video features the song "The Inside Waltz" from Bo Burnham's INSIDE and demonstrates the transformation of printed posters. Each of these posters was positioned on a lightbox-like set-up and backlit with colored LED lights. The transformation comes from an outside light being turned on and off to show the front side or back side of the poster respectively. I recorded each of the posters separately and then compiled the footage in Adobe After Effects.

The above pictures show the printed posters more clearly. The first image shows the front of the posters. The images are reversed on the back of the posters so they shine through correctly when the posters are backlit.

For more images and insight into the process, see the end of this page!

Lenticular Postcards

The second deliverable for this project was lenticular postcards. The word lenticular comes from the plastic or glasses lenses that comprise lenticular prints. These curved strips of plastic or glass refract the light so certain images are only visible from certain angles. For these postcards, I commissioned horizontal lenticulars (meaning the images change as you move the postcard side-to-side rather than up and down) and included the original poster and its counterpart for each postcard.

These lenticular postcards are best experienced in person. However, I've done my best to capture some video footage of the transformation of these postcards in effect through these GIFs. For higher-quality videos, please see the following link.

Digital Prototypes

The third part of this project is digital prototypes of these posters. I had originally envisioned the printed posters being displayed where passersby could interact with them but for long-term preservation, these digital versions provide the agency over the posters' transformation that is lacking in the previous experiments and allow any viewer to play a part in the posters' change.

I invite you to explore these Figma prototypes! While the mobile version can be experienced on a desktop, the desktop version does not translate well to the mobile experience. Please follow the links included in the white buttons to view these prototypes.

Desktop Optimized Version

Mobile Optimized Version

Award and Exhibition

My work was featured in the Senior Show for the Department of Art + Design at Northeastern University and I was honored to be one of the recipients of the Meserve Award for Creative Excellence in Design for my work on this project! It was a pleasure seeing the talent and creativity in the work of all my peers, and I was truly delighted and appreciative to be recognized among so many other talented designers.

Process

This is my initial paper prototype and the genesis of this project. I was thinking about my job at Universal Studios and how every asset is designed to tell a story. The idea came from the desire to create a poster that was more than a poster and that could support that storytelling aim.