It’s the 2nd time I volunteered to help Ritmos Latinos Salsa dance group to design their new class flyers and posters. The president of the group came to me last week with an Instagram photo she took in the dance studio, and wanted a design that’s based on that photo.
It’s a beautiful image with a taste of history and a sense of being local. The lines are strong, however the colors are heavily distorted from natural color thanks to the filters of Instagram. I tried to take away the colors to emphasize the lines and shapes.
I like the shadows the letters cast onto the wood dance floor, so I decided to do something with it. It’s time to image: creating something that’s not there! I wanted to recover the original shadows, so I took the shape of the letter, reversed the shape, distorted them and placed them back onto the floor. Since it’s a dance class, I intentionally made the shape wavy.
After sending it to the salsa group, people suggested I straighten up the letter, because Salsa dance is supposed to be strong and full of strength. Totally agree as I am an intermediate salsarita myself! So, how about the letters casting a different shape as its shadows. Not only this will spell out the full name of the dance group, it also has a sense of humor. I also tried to strike a balance between masculine and feminine colors to say:”Hey, Salsa is cool for both men and women!”
So here it is, the design inspired by shadows.
