wuslam - december slam ("button poetry is clearly the visual theme")

the last slam of the year! I didn't focus on a color scheme in general for this slam, and instead looked to really incorporate the button theme, because the host poets Sam Cook and Michael Lee are part of a group called Button Poetry. 

Everything was hand-drawn, and when I used Photoshop I used a crayon-wax brush in order to keep that sketchy/traditional feel. 

final version

initial sketches. I was exploring visually what I could do with the two poets. 

and then i stumbled upon the wonderful information that they were part of a group called "button poetry," so i went ahead to incorporate a button/circle visual theme into the poster. 

circles are always tricky though, so i spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to do with the layout. 

ended up settling on something close to that, just a little more compact. 

pencil sketch/lines; I wanted to keep a paper/traditional texture feel to the piece. 

here's a different color version. the blue's a little too teal and everything clashes too much, so i desaturated the colors, got rid of some of the shapes, and produced something much simpler.