For Design and Technology this term, we have made electric posters!
We began by discussing what information design is and looking at many different examples (from menus to road signs to the captions accompanying museum artefacts). Information design is how information is designed and presented for an intended audience depending on the context. For example, we came to realise that all the information we need in supermarkets (advertisements, price tags and product packaging) are examples of information design.
What would happen if the museum had no information on display, such as signs, maps, posters or explanations? We were given a request from ‘Gus’ at the ‘Kapowiverse’ Museum to develop electric posters about the Stone Age (which was very handy because we have been learning about the stone age throughout the Autumn term!). We discussed what would make good information design for electric posters and discussed the importance of it being clear, easy to understand and eye-catching. We looked at an example of an electric poster of a Roman soldier which included an image of the soldier, information about the soldier’s shield and a light bulb above the shield, to direct the reader’s attention to the shield. After brainstorming different topics related to the stone age (e.g. Stonehenge, farming, hunter gatherers etc.), we each chose a topic to research using text books, ipads and our own history books, and we began to make draft designs of our electric poster.
Once we were happy with our draft designs, it was time to create our final poster before making them ‘electric’. To do this we needed a light bulb, a lightbulb holder, crocodile wires, a battery and cardboard to back the poster. We created a hole in the poster just big enough for the light bulb to squeeze through and we screwed the bulb holder at the back of the poster. Once the circuit was connected, all we had to do was attach the different components to the back of the poster with sticky tape and evaluate how successful our electric posters were! Take a look at some fantastic examples in the pictures below!
