Me as a graphic designer or imitator

Thumbnail of the Dhamma Yatra Poster

Creating a graphic art work is about as absorbing as computer programming, I find.  Unless I finish it, I'll eat, drink, walk, and sleep with it on my mind.   Like I can't leave it aside.  They are similar in that they are very interactive (when you make changes, you can see your results right away); it requires logical reasoning (what causes what), and it involves computers, so it's very portable and subject to me, only!  I dislike uncontrollable factors, such as people.  Well, I know, I know, I should accept people as they are, but that's nice theoretically but hard to eschew practically. 

I volunteered to design a poster for the Dhamma Yatra this year (pictured above.  The ready-to-publish version is here, designed for an A2 or 20x24 paper).  There was never one, and I think posters are good advertising tools as they're very visually distinct.  Much more interesting than pamphlets that they're having.  I myself have not done an ad poster before, only academic ones.  So I was slightly worried how it was going to be.  I browsed some graphic design books and found out the design that I liked (for the photography show in Germany.  Once I got a hold of the book, I'll give it a proper credit here.).

I still try to avoid pirated software.  So first I must find nice open-source Windows-based tools to use (This XP freeware site provides a nice list, not only for XP).  I have used the following items:

1. Scribus: for page layouts (think Microsoft Publisher).  It's capable of making posters, pamphlets, newsletters and all sorts of printed media.  The only drawback is that it doesn't handle Thai vowels  and starting new lines properly.  So I used it  only for doing page layouts.
2. Adobe Photoshop Elements: for photo editing.  Luckily, my Sony Vaio comes with this software.  But if not, I can use Gimp which was recommended by Scribus folks.  I did basic things like cropping and auto contrast.  But I have also used a function called "Clone" to remove some unwanted spots like electricity cables in the sky.  Lots of fun to erase them, actually.
3. InkScape: a drawing tool for creating graphics and stylized texts (instead, one can also rip oneself off with Adobe Illustrator).  It handles Thai words well, so I mostly typed my Thai text in this and export as PNG.  By the way, for printing, one needs at least 300 dpi to get a decent photo (I found out from the photo shop).

Anyhow, to my regret and surprise, my poster wasn't that well received.  Most dhamma yatra staff think that I favor too much familiar faces, and that it won't relate to an average participant.  In fact, I want it to be visually striking more than boringly informative.  And the theme was "Faces of the Dhamma Yatra."  I found it weird to have to explain it verbally.  I was like, isn't it obvious?  Perhaps, it's better that my poster is subject to one's own interpretation, but a control freak like me can't help explaining it.

Besides teaching myself new highly cool software, I got to upset myself and observed how my ego was bruised as a result.  Oh, well, that's life, isn't it?  At least I like it, and that's what matters the most.  But I'm biased because I like 95%+ of what I do anyway...