Collage Series
Illustrative Collage Design
Self-directed academic project
Tools: Magazine cutouts, Adobe Illustrator
November 2017
This was one of my first design projects at Rutgers, and I didn't want to play it safe. The assignment was to make three collages around a common theme using magazine cutouts, then bring them into Illustrator to illustrate them in a unique way. I built all three around a single idea — the things that inspire people to become better versions of themselves.
The first collage is built from comic-book superheroes such as Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Captain America, The Flash, and Green Lantern. I cut out the figures and arranged them across the page, then traced over each one with triangular shapes to give the whole composition a low-poly geometric look. The idea was to take characters that already represent idealized versions of humanity and strip them down to their essential forms. All shape and color, no detail.
The second collage is about courage. I found photos of a skydiver, a firefighter, people doing dangerous stunts and/or facing their fears, and composed them inside the shape of a rising fist. The fist is the symbol of empowerment and resistance, and filling it with those images gave it a layered meaning. The flames surrounding it intensify the emotion. The word "Courage" sits at the bottom, the only text in the piece, because by that point, it doesn't need explanation.
The third collage puts former President Obama in the foreground, arms crossed, with a firefighter, a martial artist, a stunt motorcyclist, and a cowboy, greyscaled behind him, real people in roles that demand courage and skill. The yellow star at the center ties them all together as figures worth looking up to, each one representing a different form of inspiration.
These three colleges share the same theme of heroism, bravery, and the people who show us what we could be, but express it differently.