---PART III: Applying Color Plasticity

• ✔ In this final endeavor, you'll recreate a graphic poster using your Kuler color theme from Part II. Choose a classic historical poster design from the options below. Click any thumbnail to download a full-sized image.
• ✔ Consider the plasticity of the image. Which elements should expand forward in the color version? What shapes are less important, and should stay in the background?
• ✔ Using the color swatches you created in Part II, apply color to the poster.
• ✔ In my example, I'm using a poster designed by Paul Rand. I would like to make the bumblebee and the Tokyo Communication Arts title stand out in my color version. Also, I would like to make the second square from the bottom a punch color. It seems to be the most important "flower"—the bumblebee is pointing straight at it.
• ✔ First, just as in the painting exercise, choose a background color. Feel free to choose any value you like from your swatches. If the original poster used a white background, you can use a dark value, for example. Have fun, experiment, and switch the colors around.
• ✔ You can use any of Photoshop's selection tools to select the background. I used the Magic Wand tool. When I made the selection I lost the type in the lower-right corner, but that's okay, I'll add it back later.
• ✔ Using the Eyedropper tool, sample from your Kuler color theme in your Swatches panel (choose "Large Thumbnail" from the Swatches panel pop-up menu for a better view). Create a new layer on top of the black and white poster, then fill the selection with color.
• ✔ Begin to draw and fill in the shapes that you want to expand forward. Remember the tricks for creating plasticity: Strong contrast of value (light against dark) or strong contrast of saturation (bright against dark) will make an element stand out. Also, warm hues expand forward.
• ✔ I used a pale yellow for the bumblebee and the brightest red possible from my swatches for my focal point flower. Using the Type tool, I retyped the text in the lower-right corner. If your poster contains a lot of type, match the font family, size, and weight as well as you can. You can always use Helvetica or Arial for a close-enough match.
• ✔ Next, turn your focus to the elements that you would like to drop back. To make elements recede, use low contrast of value and saturation, and cooler colors.
• ✔ The muted browns of my palette keep the flowers in the background, but the yellow bee is popping out too much. I want the bumblebee to stand out, but not so much. To fix it, I used overlapping shapes—the dark wings pin the bee on the page.
• ✔ Adding texture is also a good technique to control plasticity. Above, a halftone pattern was applied to the bumblebee's wings (Filter > Sketch > Halftone Pattern), but you could add a gradient to modulate the colors in your design, or apply any Photoshop filter to mimic the texture in the original poster.
• ✔ Step back and look at your work so far. Is the plasticity effective? Consider these objectives:
  • Creating plasticity
    • Which elements are expanding forward?
    • Which elements are shifting back?
  • Controlling plasticity
    • Is any single element expanding forward too much?
    • Is any single element dropping back too much?
  • Rhythm and movement
    • ✔ Did you alternate colors to create visual rhythm?
• ✔ Make adjustments as needed, reassess, and compare. You might even create several alternative versions. How would the design look with a neutral background color? Or a darker background color?
• ✔ If you need a wider range of colors than are offered in your Kuler palette, open the original painting in Photoshop and float it in a separate window to the side of your poster (Window > Arrange > Float in Window), using the Eyedropper tool to sample directly from the painting.
• ✔ Save a PSD file of your final poster so you can edit it later if necessary. Then go to File > Save for Web & Devices to save a JPEG with a Quality level of about 80. Give your JPEG a name relevant to the poster, for example bumblebee.jpg.