POSTERS: Ketchup & Cats!

Retro style fonts I used.

I came across a bunch of retro style fonts one day while perusing design sites on the web and not only did I fall in love with them, I was extremely inspired by them. I LOVE vintage posters and anything vintagey---the colors used and the way type is dealt with makes me happyyyyyyyy.


I knew I wanted to design a couple of posters using these typefaces and it didn't take long for me to figure out what I wanted the posters to be about: my two loves, ketchup and cats!


I am a HUGE ketchup fan (Heinz, of course!) and I treat both of my cats like they're my children (which they are, duh!).


I decided to write down all of the words that come to mind when I think about ketchup and cats. I came up with a long list for each and then narrowed it down to the words I liked best. 

Next up was figuring out what colors I wanted to use. My art is usually very modern, so I had to switch gears in order to achieve the look I was going for. I wanted the posters to feel vintage, so I chose the color schemes accordingly. 

COLORS: Top = cat poster | Bottom = ketchup poster

The "choosing of the colors" happened organically as I began composing the posters. I worked on the cat poster first. <meow>


I typed out lots of words using different fonts and started playing around with them. This is where my instincts kick in. I can't really explain how the words ended up where they did because there is no way to describe what goes on in my head during this process. All I can say is that when something doesn't feel balanced or like it's in the right place, I feel unbalanced. May sound strange to you, but that feeling is something I rely on and have naturally felt my whole life.


While playing with the words, I threw in some whiskers to add a playful element to the design.

CAT LOVE poster

Next up was the ketchup poster! Yes, that sentence deserves an exclamation point---to say I love ketchup is an understatement. 


Once again, I typed out words from the list I made and started messing around with them. Heinz is OBviously the best ketchup out there, so I wanted to include the infamous "57". 


Like the cat poster, the color scheme came together naturally. I don't think I need to explain why I included red, do I? ;)


I used the awesome retro style fonts that I found so inspiring in both posters, as well as a few other fonts including one of my faves.....Arial.

KETCHUP LOVE poster

These posters are a perfect example of a design project where trial and error will get you to where you want to be. I started off with an idea of what I wanted but it wasn't until my execution of it that the idea came together. I had to play around with words, fonts, size, color, placement and direction until I had a design that I was happy with.


Time for some ketchup and cat snuggles!