Poster Series

This project contains a variety of posters from different genres, which experiment with different techniques for making images.

Category: Student Work // Personal Work

Tags: Illustration // Image-making

collaborative gig poster

I had the absolute pleasure to work on this poster with my classmates Quyen and Madison. As a group, we were assigned to collaboratively create a gig poster for a band of our choosing. We broke the creation of this poster into three phases based roughly on the process of comic book artists: inking, adding type, and adding color. The inking was made by Quyen, the type was added by Madison, and then I gave the poster its final color treatment, highlights, shadows, gradients, overall lighting, and grain. 

Lighting & Color: Jeremiah Reardon (myself)

Inking: Quyen H. Nghiem

Typography: Madison Hartman

Instructor: Sean McCabe

Institution: Tyler School of Art + Architecture, Temple University

Category: Student Work

2020 election poster

The impetus behind this poster was my frustration with the increasing polarization of the United States in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election. It seems that the U.S. is intent upon tearing itself apart based on partisan lines, tribal politics, and the “culture war.” This political poster was directly inspired by the first American political cartoon: the Join, or Die woodcut by Benjamin Franklin. I gave the woodcut a modern reinterpretation with the warning “Unite, or Die.”

Design + Art Direction: Jeremiah Reardon (myself)

Category: Personal Work

Theatre poster

This may be one of my more conceptual posters. I was assigned to create a design for the musical Cabaret. Google any Cabaret poster and you will find that they are almost all defined by their focus on the female form with an emphasis on a woman’s leg. I wanted to subvert this trend with my poster by focusing on the song “It Couldn't Please Me More,” which is also known as the pineapple song. Beyond the thematic importance of the pineapple within the context of the musical, I saw that the pineapple had a striking visual connection with 1930s Berlin and cabaret performers. The rough diamond pattern of the pineapple can be reinterpreted into both the pattern of the swastika and the fishnet pattern of the cabaret performer. I also snuck in the cabaret leg into the center of the logotype as a nod to the previous iterations of Cabaret posters.

Designer: Jeremiah Reardon (myself)

Instructor: Scott Laserow

Institution: Tyler School of Art + Architecture, Temple University

Category: Student Work

Social justice poster

Black Lives Matter. This message is more important than any description I may try to give this poster.

If the appropriation of the “Thin Blue Line” is more upsetting to you than the loss of American lives to an unjust criminal justice system, then I humbly leave you with this suggestion: the best way to support police officers is to hold them accountable when they abuse their power. Black Lives Matter.

Design + Art Direction: Jeremiah Reardon (myself)

Category: Personal Work

environmental poster

This poster was originally created as an editorial illustration for an article on climate change. I enjoyed working on the concept so much that I recreated the image into a poster, and I subsequently submitted it to the 2019 Temple University Political Cartoon Contest where I was honored with first-place recognition. Using the imagery of Jenga blocks was perfect for this assignment as I wanted to recreate the sense of tension one feels when a Jenga block is removed and the sense of dread knowing that a collapse is imminent. The metaphor is also apt for suggesting man’s responsibility in the coming collapse and how we as a civilization far too often treat the environment as something within our control or as something to be played with.

Designer: Jeremiah Reardon (myself)

Instructor: Sean McCabe

Institution: Tyler School of Art + Architecture, Temple University

Award: 2019 Temple University Political Cartoon Contest—1st Place

Category: Student Work

Awareness Poster

For this assignment, I was tasked with bringing awareness to a particular socioeconomic issue. As the impact of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic began to take effect, roughly 40 million Americans were suddenly classified as being at risk of eviction. I was inspired to create a very simple, geometric poster to communicate the precariousness of this situation. The title for this poster is “The Precipice of 2020.”

Designer: Jeremiah Reardon (myself)

Instructor: Scott Laserow

Institution: Tyler School of Art + Architecture, Temple University

Category: Student Work

experimental poster

An experimental poster focusing on social media addiction. For this piece, I practiced using a technique that I had little experience with— scanography—to produce a darker and more gritty feeling. This poster is titled “Addicted to the Likes.”

Design + Art Direction: Jeremiah Reardon (myself)

Category: Personal Work

Abstract poster

A purely experimental and abstract poster—the image is made up of several million triangles blended together in varying ways. Relaxing one’s eyes allows the shapes to flow and have the illusion of movement.

Design + Art Direction: Jeremiah Reardon (myself)

Category: Personal Work