Teen Activity Center (TAC 212)

Description:
Our Illustration class partnered with the Teen Activity Center (TAC 212) in downtown Fort Collins to create window posters for the front of their building. TAC 212 creates a “third place” outside of home and school for teens, especially those coming from families with substance abuse, addiction, domestic violence, etc. My role in this project was to design window posters that emphasized TAC 212’s mission and represented the kids.

Process:
Because the kids built sticky note walls inside the center, I based my design off a bulletin board covered in sticky notes. To get the “cut paper” look, I cut out the letter shapes from the sticky notes and added drop shadows to give them dimension. The biggest challenge I faced was rendering the bulletin board cork texture; I struggled with having it load quickly and at high quality when blown up. However, this problem was solved once I figured out, I could rasterize the texture to maintain quality and efficiency.

Outcome:
This project was my first look into collaborating with a real-life client, and I learned how to work in a quick turn-around time. It also showed me how important it is to ask the right questions about design and utility, especially because clients might not be familiar with everything that goes into the design process.