Beerchaser 2024 Station Signs Graphic Design

Roles

Graphic Designer

Tools

Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, Bing Create

Introduction

Beerchaser 5k is a race by Veugeler Creative where participants can run or walk a route while participating in beer tastings along the way. This is an event that happens around St. Patricks Day and invites people to celebrate by being active outdoors and gives them the opportunity to try both old and new varieties of beer while they do so.

Design Process

User Needs

  • Signs to accompany each of the beer tasting stations along the route, plus additional signage for directions

  • Needs the Beerchaser 5k logo

  • Needs the featured beverage logo

  • Must incorporate a St. Patrick's Day theme

Execution

  • Signs that have the Beerchaser 5k logo, the featured beer logo and a St. Patricks Day theme

  • Incorporates Celtic sayings

  • Creative imagery of leprechauns and other Irish graphics that are related to the text on each sign

When creating the station signage for Beerchaser 5k 2024, I wanted to experiment with Bing Create Ai to develop very specific, surreal graphics that would align with the Celtic sayings chosen. While various attempts of different descriptions were necessary, I was eventually able to get relatively consistent results based on how I worded what I needed. I wanted the graphics to be fun and nonsensical, but aligned with the text, which required me to think out-of-the-box when asking Bing Create for particular results.

I chose a font that nodded to old Celtic script, but was still largely interpretable from a distance so that the participants would be able to read as they ran/walked by. I chose to isolate the Beerchaser 5k logo in a circle so that it would stand out from the background, and added an adjacent transparency gradient for the featrured beer logo. This combination of shapes was easy to relocate as various other elements were shifted across numerous signs.

Because so many other elements of the signs changed consistently, I decided to keep the background relatively similar across each of the signs, the main variation being the placement of four leaf clovers and the alignment of text.

Below: Variations of station signage for Beerchaser 5k 2024

This project was extremely enjoyable because it allowed me to be creative in a more surrealist way. It was extremely time consuming to learn how to modify my requests to Bing Create Ai and sift through the multitude of responses it provided. I appreciated being able to experiment with Ai and now feel more comfortable integrating this kind of Ai into my design process. If I had to do this project again, I would branch out to other Ai software and compare the results I was given. I would also give myself a longer timeline to complete this assignment in favor of wanting to push the limits of Ai and discover what is truly possible with new technologies.

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