Swap Shop

Out with the old, in with the new (sort of). Swap shops are all about recycling/reusing and the style of the poster had to reiterate that. It was part of a 'Go Green Week' on campus and so the earthy colour scheme of green and brown seemed a natural choice.

The inspiration for the swap shop logo was the 3 arrow recycling symbol. I decided it would be better to go with only 2 arrows to suggest the give and take nature of the event.

A lot of the time I use quite plain fonts for advertising (helvetica, arial etc). Straight lines and sharp edges convey a slick operation and almost a guarantee of quality. I felt that was the wrong message for this particular event as nothing was being sold and it was more of a fun, chilled-out type of affair. The font used is 'Komika Axis' and I think it has quite an inviting look.

Cardboard, more than most other products, is closely linked to recycling. The items that were likely to appear on the day had to feature in some form on the poster and simplifying them into cardboard shapes was an appealing concept.


Lastly, the background has the sort of grainy texture that you would find on recycled paper and there is a faint pattern of interlocking arrows, lovely.

Please visit my friend's blog if you would like to hear more about the Swap Shop (warning: she is a bit of a tree hugging eco-weirdo).