Come and Explore the Galaxy: A Puzzlehunt Poster

Come and Explore the Galaxy: A Puzzlehunt Poster - student project

First, I just wanted to say thank you, Chip—you've been one of my graphic design heroes for a long time, and it was just incredible being able to learn from you through this class.

Every year, Stanford holds a day-long puzzlehunt—an opportunity for students to come together and solve fun logic puzzles in a race to win the contest. 

The theme for 2017 is "exploring the galaxy." I wanted to create an art poster that would reflect this idea by including elements of space (stars and planets), bright colors against the "night sky" backdrop, and a hand-lettered style that creates a surprising juxtaposition with the futuristic concept of space. 

This is a scan of my first sketch, drawn with a felt-tip pen:

Come and Explore the Galaxy: A Puzzlehunt Poster - image 1 - student project

Here is a first run at adding color (you can see that I moved some elements of the poster around, according to the spec and feedback):

Come and Explore the Galaxy: A Puzzlehunt Poster - image 2 - student project

I also wanted to explore some other color options:

Come and Explore the Galaxy: A Puzzlehunt Poster - image 3 - student project

And the final poster, after adding some texture and refining some details on the stars:

Come and Explore the Galaxy: A Puzzlehunt Poster - image 4 - student project

Thanks for teaching an amazing class, Chip—I really enjoyed learning about how you approach a spec, and I'm so excited to see this puzzlehunt poster go out into the world!

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