The challenge

DiscoveryBound: Chicago is taking a day trip to Starved Rock State Park this fall and needed a flier announcing the event.

Design highlights

So many! The background is where most of the action is. (Roll over to see background without overlying text, and thanks for your patience–it may take a few moments to load.)Wood texture from Media Militia became a picnic table. I scanned the park’s trail map in 3 sections and merged them in Photoshop, then placed it on the “table.”

Next came a scavenger hunt list, which was made to look like real paper by using a folded paper brush from UberSuper and some hand-drawn pencil scratch-outs.

Then images pulled from the internet of a Nalgeen bottle, digital camera, and pencil were added to the collage. A coffee stain brush by Jelena Jovovic created the impression of a water mark from the Nalgeen.

Finally I did a hue/saturation adjustment to get a sepia wash and tweaked the curves to lighten the shadows and darken the highlights for a more even tone (to ultimately increase the readability of the overlying text).

The sepia was reiterated as a drop shadow to pop out the flier’s “headline.” Increased leading of the main content of the flier (in large black type) allowed for the details (orange, blue, and green text) to slip in between and create an interesting layout. The blue and green text also added interest and balanced out the sepia.