COWBUNGACON
COWBUNGACON
COWBUNGACON
COWBUNGACON
-Design | Branding | Illustration-
Overview
Welcome to Cowabungcon
The Problem
This would be the first year this event was being held, so the client needed the full design package. This would include promotional items (posters and social media assets), wayfinding, and also the typical merchandise you would find at a comic convention (t-shirts, hats, lanyards, badges, and enamel pins). The client also requested unique posters to highlight the individual Ninja Turtles to give away to the guests for visiting the year one event.
Cowabungacon is a three day, Texas-based comic convention that celebrates everything having to do with the 1984 comic and ever growing franchise, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. With its wide range of artists, vendors, and voice actors, it’s definitely an event you can’t miss.
Ideation and Inspiration
I started the base of this project with a poster design. My thought process when approaching this was to first ask the big questions. Those being what makes the Ninja Turtles so special? What can I do to highlight those features? What can I do to draw people to this convention and make them want to go?
I wanted people to see the elements of this convention and instantly get taken back to a moment of happiness when they would watch these characters on the screen. I also wanted to incorporate an element that could somehow draw in the younger and newer audience, maybe add an educational element.
I decided to design an infographic poster. I wanted to highlight the key features of the turtles, to show their differences in personality, weapons, strengths and weaknesses.
Moodboard
I pulled inspiration from superheroes for my mood board. My found myself drawn to character profiles with the simple illustrations of the characters and their information to give the viewer an idea of what’s special about them.
I also researched TMNT information, color palettes, typefaces, and character designs. I did this for two reasons; One being because I planned on creating my own illustrations for this event and the other because I need the keep the feel of the TMNT.
Sketches
Digital Drafts
Round 1
Round 2
Final Design
Infographic Poster
This is the final Group infographic poster that is free with the purchase of an admission ticket.
These Posters are a closer and more detailed version of the original that highlight each individual character. With the purchase of an admission ticket, visitors will get to choose one for free. All four would be available for purchase so the visitors can have the complete set.
These Posters are a closer and more detailed version of the original that highlight each individual character. With the purchase of an admission ticket, visitors will get to choose one for free. All four would be available for purchase so the visitors can have the complete set.
These Posters are a closer and more detailed version of the original that highlight each individual character. With the purchase of an admission ticket, visitors will get to choose one for free. All four would be available for purchase so the visitors can have the complete set.
These Posters are a closer and more detailed version of the original that highlight each individual character. With the purchase of an admission ticket, visitors will get to choose one for free. All four would be available for purchase so the visitors can have the complete set.
Expanding the Design
Event Poster
Social Media TILES
mOCKUPS
Reflection
Overall, This project was a success and I accomplished what I set out to design. I was able to bring that childhood, comic book, Saturday morning feel and made not one, but two sets of original art. Not only did I make a visual pleasing infographic poster, but to expand the project and go above and beyond for the client, I created five other poster. The first four were infographic posters with all new illustrations, but instead of it being group posters, these were individual posters of each turtle, going into more detail. The last poster I designed was a promotional event poster for the convention. This one included the logo design, which was very simple. For this, I took inspiration from every iteration of the show, using the original 1987 shows’ typeface and using the 2012 show typeface for the subtext. Once the posters were complete, the other items were just rearranging the elements to be visually pleasing.
The difficult part of this design was the body copy. With it being an infographic poster, traditionally, they have a lot of copy on them. My challenge was to get the information on it and have it still be readable. As you can tell from my first digital draft, I had way too much copy, so I had to Alpick what information was important to me and even simplify that to have it fit. In the end, I feel I was able to sucessfully have the information readable. I beleive the poster is easier to read because of the size of the posters, with the group poster being a 18x24 and the individual posters being 14x18.
Altogether, this project was very fun and I enjoyed it a great deal.