For my Final Major Project, I chose the module’s themed brief and selected ‘Zeitgeist’. To illustrate this theme, I chose a past decade (the 1960’s) for which I negotiated a brief proposal.

For the brief, I imagined the V&A museum was planning a temporary exhibition on the Swinging Sixties in Carnaby Street, London. The objective was to choose different key figures from the decade to visually translate the zeitgeist of the 1960’s as a form of advertisement for this pop-up exhibition. The target audience included locals or tourists with an age ranging from 18 to 45. They could be couples, friends, families, or students who are curious museumgoers, experience seekers and are interested in the era that was the sixties.

The core problem to solve was to produce an attractive design to advertise the temporary exhibition efficiently enough for the V&A to gain more visitors.

The design requirements for this project were the production of the following items: a poster, a promotional brochure, a website page, social media posts (more specifically, a Facebook banner and an Instagram post), and tote bags as collateral items.

I began my research phase by exploring the V&A museum’s website in order to gain an overview of their work and identity. I then carried out in-depth research on the 1960s decade, exploring worldwide key events, the culture in the West, politics and defining keywords to describe the decade. Website articles, journal articles, discussions with family members and documentaries were the main resources used to carry out the research and helped me understand that the 1960s was a youth-led decade of cultural change, liberation and revolution. Obtaining contextual and historical facts enabled me to identify that London was the capital of fashion and music at the time, and that it was these aspects that defined the Swinging Sixties in London. This led to further research in this particular fields and allowed the production of first drafts to define a concept. Further visual research was then carried out to obtain the atmosphere of the Sixties, as well as to inspire my work in terms of imagery, colour and typography.

The development phase began with the production of new sketches based on the initial ones. These sketches were then developed in detail to identify which concepts would work and which ones would not. Analysing and evaluating my drafts enabled me to select three concepts. Before further developing these concepts, I experimented with different materials, which gave me new ideas, but also led me to choose producing my work digitally for this project. I did however add texture in the background which was handmade. Digital work was the most appropriate tool for this project as the final design was very detailed and handmaking my work would have not been as efficient. In addition, the digital work was a way to represent the modern and innovative decade that were the Sixties. I thus used Adobe Illustrator to develop my three concepts in detail, and found that representing my key figures and the zeitgeist of the Sixties through symbolic and abstract geometric shapes was the most appropriate way to answer the brief. I thus further developed this idea and was able to select three alternatives I had produced. Putting these alternatives in context through mock-ups, and asking for my family and friends’ opinion, enabled me to select one particular alternative to re-work, especially in terms of typography. Focusing on the typeface, I further researched typography examples from contemporary typographers, which led to re-evaluating my initial choice and to finding the appropriate typeface for my project.

The outcome for this brief is based on my research on art, revolution, fashion and music in the 1960s, as well as on the frequent use of geometric shapes during this decade. The design presents an immersive geometric structure made of circle, squares/rectangles and triangles. Within these shapes, one can find graphic elements that represent the key figures and events of the Sixties:

Fashion is represented through sunglasses, tricolour circles, flowers, which represent famous fashion designer Mary Quant, and an eye with long eyelashes which refers to Twiggy, an iconic British model during the decade.

Music is represented through dots to represent the speakers of the transistor radio which became widely popular in the 1960s. It is also represented with a vinyl record, a guitar, a mouth with the tongue to represent the Rolling Stones, and finally through four heads that represent the Beatles. Their heads are swinging as a reference to their live performance of ‘Twist & Shout’ in 1964, in which they are moving their heads along with the music.

Revolution is represented through the peace sign, as well as a raised fist and flowers.

Art is represented through the various geometric shapes, and op art, which was also popular in the Sixties, is represented through the shapes filled with thin coloured lines.

Some of the key elements are tilted and carry over other elements in order to add movement and thus represent the dynamic side of the decade during which a lot of cultural changes appeared. In addition, the icons break out at the bottom of the design, representing the way the young generation were breaking previously established conventions from the 1940s and the 1950s. This generation gap is also represented through the use of vibrant colours typical from the Sixties within the design, and the use of black and white at the bottom of the design for the background and the rest of the information (such as the location and dates of the exhibition).

The typeface chosen for the title of the exhibition ‘The Swinging Sixties’ captures the essence of the 1960s while staying modern. Its boldness correlates with the decade’s zeitgeist for the new generation brought a cultural revolution to society in the West. Its rounded and bouncy aspects offer a playful and dynamic atmosphere, which is coherent with the Sixties’ atmosphere. As for the typeface chosen for the additional text information, Helvetica, it was a popular typeface that was created in the Fifties and was heavily used in the Sixties. The choice of this typeface, as well as the black and white versus colour, thus marks the transition between the two decades and enhance the idea of movement and change.

The background used for the poster is a picture of an A4 white sheet which I had crumpled, and that I modified on Photoshop to add a grainy, and thus retro, effect. The use of such a background enabled to give my work a retro aspect, which contrasts with the use of a modern digital tool for the production of my work. For the creation of the other design items (brochure, tote bag, web page and social media posts), the elements created for the poster were modified and were disposed differently in order to fit in the different formats, while maintaining the immersive aspect of the design and visually translating the vibrant and dynamic decade that was the Sixties.

The design produced as well as the typeface, layout and colours chosen, effectively capture the zeitgeist of the 1960s in an original way and would be eye-catching for my target audience. The research carried out on the history and context of the chosen decade informed my design and the evaluation of my development work enabled me to create an unexpected but successful design. 

The design produced is colourful, vibrant, dynamic and captures the atmosphere of the Sixties through the iconographic representation of key figures and events. The concept of geometric shapes is coherent with the decade chosen, as well as the colours chosen, which were popular at the time. The modern and digitally made design would be attractive for my target audience and would thus successfully attract visitors to the exhibition.