PROJECT 1:INSTRUCTABLE POSTER
March 11| 2026
NAME: Miao Xinjun
STUDENT I.D: 0379525
Information Design / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media/ Taylor's University
Project 1:Instructable Poster
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Instruction
2. Process
2.1 Selected Recipe - YouTube Link
4. Feedback
5. Reflection
INSTRUCTION
1.1 Lecture
In this task, we were required to select a recipe video from a pre-existing blog homepage, analyze its steps, and create an instructable poster based on that recipe. The poster must clearly illustrate each step of the recipe and be easily readable and understandable by the reader. Furthermore, we were only allowed to use permitted software to create the poster; template poster software such as Canva was not permitted.
2. Instruction
2. PROCESS
2.1 Selected Recipe - YouTube Link
Before starting Project 1, we first need to select a video from Pasta Grannies' Homepage as the theme and basis for our poster presentation.
- The Selected YouTube Recipe Video:
https://youtu.be/nP70SrnWTw0?si=OS6lAPO0zkINw73O
2.2 Sketches
To help with the subsequent work, I organized the content and steps of the recipes I selected.
- Recipe Contents - How to cook Puglia Bread
1. Prepare the dough: For every kilogram of durum wheat flour, use 1/4 cubic meter of yeast. Slowly add room-temperature water and about 2 teaspoons of salt. The amount of water added should be about 70% of the flour weight. Then mix it into a sticky dough and leave it to ferment overnight. (You can gently press the dough during fermentation to help it rise.)
2. Preheat the oven (20–30 minutes) : Place olive branches inside and light the oven.
3. Prepare the filling : Chop the pumpkin, cherries, tomatoes, onions, and black olives without removing the pits. Then add a generous amount of olive oil and salt.
4. Mix everything together : The dough for making Sheblasti (Greek: “unshaped”) must be very wet. Mix the dough with the fruit and vegetable mixture and stir evenly. At this stage, you can add more olive oil if you like.
5. Clean the ashes : Wipe the bottom of the oven with a cloth.
6. Shape and place into the oven : Divide the dough into several portions and spread them onto the baking paper. Traditionally, before baking paper existed, people used fig leaves. Then place them flat into the oven with an iron peel.
7. Close the oven door : Make sure the door is tightly sealed.
- Sketch 1
With Mr. Kannan's permission, I decided to use Procreate to create my instructable poster.
The recipe was about baking Puglia bread. After organizing the recipe, I quickly started sketching the first draft to present my poster layout ideas to the instructor as soon as possible.
When conceiving my first poster draft, my idea was to show the viewer the main steps in making Puglia bread. Since this was my first time sketching this poster, to avoid the content appearing disorganized and lacking focus, I tried to highlight only the most important and key steps, following visual visualization principles.
I've chosen to highlight the three steps I consider crucial: making the dough, mixing the fruits and vegetables with the dough, and placing the dough in the oven. Meanwhile, the step of 'processing the water and vegetables' is presented as secondary information, shown between steps one and two.
- After First Feedback
After Mr. Kannan showed me my first draft, I improved it based on the feedback I received. Specific improvements included:
1. All materials could be depicted as if in use, which would make it easier for viewers to browse and understand. For example, a wine bottle could be shown being poured, rather than just being placed to the side.
2. Some steps were not drawn in the first draft, but they could still be drawn as separate steps in the poster, such as preheating the oven and preparing fruit. Otherwise, the poster might feel incomplete and hinder the viewer's reading experience.
3. For step 5, 'Spread the dough on parchment paper or leaves,' adding the different types of containers available as supplementary information can help the reader understand.
Based on my improvement goals, I created two new drafts. In draft 2 and draft 3, I experimented with two different compositions to convey the information. Ultimately, I chose draft 3 because I found it clearer and more readable.
- Selected Sketch:
2.3 Color Scheme
After completing the draft, I began working on the poster's color scheme.
I prefer to find color schemes that produce better visual effects through experimentation; therefore, I planned to create two different color schemes based on my chosen draft.
- Color Scheme 1:
First, I experimented with a dark background paired with other brightly colored elements, hoping the dark background would help highlight these elements. For the use of elements such as the title font, food, and kitchen utensils, I referenced the 'dopamine color scheme,' primarily using highly saturated green, pink, and yellow in a harmonious color combination.
Of course, the proportions of these three colors in the poster image cannot be equal, as this would result in a poor visual effect. Therefore, I consciously allocated different proportions of each color, with pink having the largest proportion; it was used for labeling step numbers and titles, as well as decorative text at the bottom of the poster.
After completing the overall color scheme, I started marking the positions
where text information would be placed using white and blue squares. This
step helped me effectively reserve space for the text information to be
added later and preview and adjust the layout of the text information in
advance.
- Color scheme 2:
Considering I was designing a recipe information poster, I felt that a lighter color scheme would better suit the 'food' theme than a near-black background. So, after consulting color palettes, I chose a combination of yellow and green tones for my experiment.
During this color scheme experiment, I had an inspiration while coloring the poster background. I realized I could use contrasting background colors to emphasize the poster's visual core and guide the reader's eye. Therefore, on a yellow-green background, I used a creamy yellow to create a large, smoky-smoke-like block of color. This block, like the aroma of food, starts at the bottom of the poster where the final product of the recipe is depicted, gradually widening upwards to form an inverted triangle. I'm quite satisfied with this idea because the clever shape and outline of this creamy yellow area not only embodies the idea of wafting food aroma, but its flowing shape also emphasizes the recipe steps depicted on the poster and guides the reader's eye, creating a sense of flow and allowing for a smoother reading of each step of the recipe in the instructable poster.
Next, I completed the overall color scheme of the light color scheme and marked the positions where text information would be added later with dark purple.
- Color Scheme 3 (Final):
After the second round of feedback on Project 1, color scheme 2 was considered a better choice because it looked more like a 'recipe instructable poster' than scheme 1. However, I still wanted to experiment with the color scheme one more time. Since the recipes I chose were about baking bread, I thought that perhaps a yellow tone would be more suitable for my recipe infographic poster.
Therefore, based on color scheme 2, I kept the pink and dark purple parts, while changing the color scheme of the remaining elements of the poster to a yellow tone. I think the result of this experiment was quite good; the color combination was not only harmonious and visually pleasing, but more importantly, it was very suitable for a bread-themed recipe instructable poster!
Furthermore, to more clearly guide the reader's eye to browse each step of the recipe sequentially, I changed the shape of the 'milky white smoke' in the background, making it more aligned with the layout of each recipe step, forming a clear path to help readers read efficiently.
I believe this was a successful attempt. To confirm this, following Mr. Kannan's advice, I showed my work to my non-art professional friends and asked them if they could quickly read and understand each step of the recipe in sequence, and whether they experienced a visually pleasing effect. I received affirmative answers, which led me to adopt this color scheme and composition to further refine my instructable poster.
2.4 Completion
Based on color scheme 3, I continued to refine the poster using Procreate, carefully completing the drawing of each element. In addition, to assist with the subsequent textual explanations of the materials and tools needed for each step of the recipe, I drew mini icons next to each step, corresponding to the materials and tools used in that step, to help convey the information to the viewer more effectively.
- Below is a screen recording of my process of creating a poster using Procreate. The process includes how I drew three different drafts and three different color schemes, and the final result:
Original (Apart from the color chart used as a reference, all content was completed through my own painting.): Because the color scheme was only intended to showcase the color scheme, the initial drawing was relatively rough. The final poster design needed to be based on the chosen color scheme. Therefore, during the process of redrawing some elements, to ensure that the colors used were consistent with the final color scheme, I would place the previously drawn and exported color scheme into the image so that I could sample and check the color scheme at any time.
YouTube Link Here: https://youtube.com/shorts/toAFalt9wK8?feature=share
Next, I imported the Instructable Poster I drew from Procreate and opened it in Adobe Illustrator, and began using Adobe Illustrator to place subheadings, step-by-step explanations, additional notes, and other text information.
In Adobe Illustrator, I chose the font Source Sans Variable - Bold to label the mini icons for materials and tools next to each step. This is a sans-serif font. Since the main title of my Instructable Poster also uses a sans-serif font, I felt that choosing a similar sans-serif font for the labeling information would be more visually appealing. I also used an 18pt font size for this text to ensure readability.
Furthermore, for the text explaining the specific steps next to each step, I used the font Source Serif Variable - Regular. This is a serif font belonging to the same font family as the labeling font. This not only distinguishes the labeling information from the step explanation information but also avoids stylistic clashes, making it very suitable. The reason for choosing the Regular font is that I believe using bold for multiple information modules would lead to excessive emphasis, causing visual fatigue and reducing the reader's interest in reading the poster. To ensure a higher level of readability for this section, I used a larger 20pt font size.
For the subheadings, I used Source Serif Variable - Black to maintain a consistent font style while also emphasizing the subheadings' hierarchical status over information other than the main poster title.
After placing the text information using Adobe Illustrator, my Instructable Poster was officially completed.
3. SUBMISSION
Google Link Here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ol4cPqqxWtEHHww9oDdUPGjOg0kyz0H9/view?usp=share_link
4. FEEDBACK
- First Feedback (week 5)：
1. All tools and materials can be depicted as if in use, which will improve viewer readability. For example, a wine bottle could be shown being poured, rather than simply placed aside.
2. Some steps were omitted from the first draft. While these may not be crucial, they could still be drawn as separate steps on the poster, such as preheating the oven and preparing the fruit. Omitting them could result in incomplete information and hinder viewer comprehension.
3. Regarding step 5, the recipe video states, "Divide the dough into portions, spread on baking paper, and bake in the oven. However, before the invention of baking paper, fig leaves were used, and this practice is still sometimes used." This shows that while baking paper is more common, fig leaves are also an option. Therefore, Mr. Kannan suggested adding the description of fig leaves as an alternative to baking paper as supplementary information next to the baking paper description to aid the viewer's understanding and make the recipe poster more complete.
- Second Feedback (week 6 - online lecture)：
Regarding my two color schemes, color scheme 1 doesn't seem to fit the theme of the recipe instructable poster, while the yellow-green color scheme used in color scheme 2 is clearly better and can present the information more clearly.
- Third Feedback (week 6 - offline lecture)：
After adding the text information, the poster was almost complete. The only problem was that the placement of some of the text information modules could confuse readers about which step of the recipe they were referring to. For example, the text information module for step 3, due to its length and location between steps 3 and 4 in the poster's composition, made it difficult for readers to immediately understand which step it connected to. This could be improved by adjusting the layout of the text information modules or adding appropriate labels. After improvement, showing my poster to non-art professionals and asking them if they could efficiently read and understand the content was a good way to test whether my text information layout effectively aided viewers in reading.
- Fourth feedback (week 7):
Everything is great. My poster has a good visual effect and layout, and the text layout has also been significantly improved. If you want it to be even better, you can further simplify the text on the poster, remove unnecessary parts, and slightly increase the font size to make it easier to read.
5. REFLECTION
Experience:
In completing the Instructable Poster, I strived to achieve satisfaction at every stage. For drafts or color schemes I wasn't happy with, I repeatedly tried different layouts and schemes to find a better result. Fortunately, these attempts always yielded satisfactory results. Furthermore, this task gave me a deeper understanding of the characteristics required for an excellent Instructable Poster. During the production process, I frequently reviewed the theoretical knowledge I learned in this module and constantly reflected on whether I kept these guiding principles in mind when designing the poster. This proved very effective and greatly benefited me.
Observation:
I've observed that during the poster-making process, when I faced situations where I didn't know how to improve my Instructible Poster, as long as I objectively considered the theoretical knowledge I had learned, I could always gain new inspiration. At the same time, browsing a large number of excellent works is also important; we need to absorb knowledge and inspiration from excellent works to continuously learn and improve. Of course, if time permits, multiple attempts are also an essential path to achieving a satisfactory result. In the process of trying, we will always have the opportunity to encounter a result that satisfies us and adopt it.
Findings:
I found that practice is an indispensable part of the learning process. Through practice, I further mastered the important theoretical knowledge I learned in this module while designing Instructable Posters. In practice, I improved and verified my ideas and concepts through repeated attempts and by showing my work to friends who are not design majors, thus making progress. I think this is a very beneficial part, not only allowing me to apply the knowledge I have learned, but also making me more capable of self-judgment of my work through repeated attempts, improvements, and reflections. Whether in my undergraduate studies or in my future work, I believe that the ability to judge how one's work can be improved is one of the essential qualities.
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