Open Window Project | Year 3

For this project, I wanted to explore how traditional drawing techniques could be integrated into a final digital design. The brief required the creation of a marketable poster for an Open Window event centered around artists connecting and drawing together.

At the time, I was studying Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of the carnivalesque, which celebrates liberation, equality, and playful chaos through humour, masquerade, and the subversion of social hierarchies. I contrasted this idea with a common challenge among artists, burnout. My concept imagined the event as a space of creative renewal, where Bakhtin’s carnivalesque spirit could help dissolve pressure and reignite imagination through collective creation.

The development of this piece involved an extensive sketching process, with careful consideration given to composition and the placement of event information. Because the poster needed to remain both expressive and functional, I focused on balancing detailed illustration with clear, readable layout. The artwork itself was hand-drawn, then scanned and refined digitally in Photoshop, where I added colour and final details.

This project strengthened my drawing ability and improved my approach to composition and planning. It also deepened my understanding of how to embed conceptual meaning into a design while maintaining a strong sense of invitation and accessibility.