This project celebrates Gordon Parks as one of the first mainstream African American photographers in America. Parks is mostly famous for his photography, which focused on civil rights issues, poverty, race relations, and city life. Parks photographed fashion of the 1940s through the 1950s. In 1968, Gordon Parks became the first African American to direct a major motion picture with his film, The Learning Tree. He published books throughout his career as well.
This is the final poster design I came up with to represent the opposing views on race in America. In this poster you have 3 categories with 2 photos underneath that represent the daily routines of African American families versus White families. You can read the description of each photograph along the sides. The gradient in the poster symbolizes the title I chose for this poster, “Unmasking America”. Picture someone wearing a ski mask. When they go to remove the ski mask, it is in a vertical direction going up.
The files above are the first digital drafts of my Gordon Parks flyer. At first, I wanted the poster to have an asymmetrical layout. The boxes around the categories were to represent a flagpole holding the images as if they were a flag. I faced challenges with the spacing on this idea due to the fact that The images would be difficult to see if they were at a smaller scale on this 24 x 36in poster. In the second variation, I used a white background with grey boxes surrounding the categories and the question at the very bottom of the poster. The last two variations were ideas I had on Gordon Parks’ photography of what NYC looked like in the 1940s.
