Hugo House
Event Posters and Media
The Hugo House is a long-standing Creative Writing Center located on Capitol Hill in Seattle, WA. They offer classes, events, youth programs and resources for writers and literary creatives.
I was approached by the Events Coordinator to aid in the creation of flyers and web/social media posts for their and their clients’ events. My responsibilities include creation and construction of the flyers - usually under a quick timeline - and aiding in editing existing projects. If needed I also help coordinate and/or brainstorm directly with clients to ensure the delivery of a product both they and Hugo House loves and suits their needs.
In this role I use my design skills and experience with customers/clients to ensure repeat business by clients, create eye-catching products to draw in people to events, and continue to build on my skills in Adobe Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign etc.), Canva, and project management tools like Trello.
I thoroughly love each project and each new concept they can bring! Creating each event poster is a rewarding experience that allows me to embrace new challenges and push my creative boundaries. I enjoy exploring unique concepts and designing visuals that not only capture the essence of the event, and express what the client wants, but also engages the audience effectively. Each project brings its own set of requirements and inspirations, and this variety and ability to help a creative community fuels my passion for design.
The two above posters were particularly fun and challenging due to an additional constraint: I only had a few days to complete them. I only had the information needed, and a vague idea of what the event was going to be. I was told to “just make it simple, its fine as long as its clear”, but I wanted to go a step further than just text. I really wanted to make sure to grasp the concept of the event and what the client might want based on that.
I used both a sketchbook and Canva as a prototype, then took them into Adobe Illustrator for final designs, checking in with the Event Coordinator before finalizing.
For the Salvagia book launch, I used elements from the book cover. Using a poppy bold typeface, exciting colors and a figure from the book cover I was able to create a poster that both the Hugo House and the event creator was happy with.
For the Zine event, I used a specific image they wanted, while using a bold, freehand style typeface and imagery of a book/magazine. I wanted to give it a “DIY” feel, to emulate the hand-made zine one might hope to create during the event.
I was tasked with quickly fixing or redoing a poster for a book release. On the right is what was given to me to fix.
Upon seeing the book cover, and briefly looking up the synopsis, I decided to go in a different direction and redo the poster.
Using Canva, I used colors and motifs from the book cover and visual hierarchy rules to create an appealing effect and draw attention to the event.
The Acting Director of Hugo House, Pepe Montero, asked for help in designing his event poster for Enflorar, which celebrated Dia De Los Muertos in tandem with reflecting on and honoring literary forbearers.
I started with a few ideas and used Canva and Illustrator to put together a rough draft. After a few more additions and requests from Pepe, I applied them and created a poster we were both happy with.
I used both my own graphics created in Illustrator and Canva graphics, ending with preparing print-ready files in Illustrator.
I had creative freedom with this poster for a recurring Open Mic event, but with the theme being Halloween.
I used Procreate on iPad to create a fun piece of art to use. I uploaded to Illustrator to fine-tune a few parts, create a border and play with the type to drive in the ‘spooky’ aesthetic. Finally, I finished with leaving a spot for the Events coordinator to leave a QR Code, and made the file print-ready.