IU Student Foundation/Little 500- “Influence Poster”
As part of a design class, I was tasked with rendering a Little 500 poster in the style of a favorite designer from any era. The finished product has been one of my favorite pieces to create. I sought to emulate to work of early Punk artist and designer; Raymond Pettibon.
Pettibon was responsible for the design and artistic branding of many of the prominent, early punk/hardcore acts like Black Flag and Sonic Youth. His work was characterized by crude, heavy strokes and haphazardly xeroxed typography. This kind of raw artistry was incredible challenge on a computer.
The Little 500 Bike Race is a famous event held every year at Indiana University in the spring. Known to many as “the world’s greatest college weekend” it encompasses a week of nonstop partying centered around Men’s and Women’s competitive bike racing. I am not making this up.
My poster takes many elements from Pettibon’s design work and reworks them in an unconventional way. I had set out to create something wild that the average person likely would not associate with bike racing, but in all looks great. I loved becoming familiar with the pencil tool in Adobe illustrator and creating something twitchy and hectic that looks like it could have been drawn by hand.