Summer of Soul

For this project, I was tasked with creating a retro, expressive poster to support a Summer of Soul documentary social media campaign.

The goal was to visually communicate celebration, victory, and a sense of cultural resilience that resonates with both nostalgic fans and new audiences.

The primary creative challenge was to craft a design that felt both celebratory and powerful standing as a symbol of voice and unity. To achieve this, I centered the composition around a raised fist gripping a microphone, a gesture universally recognized as strength and expression.

By shaping the word “SOUL” into the fingers themselves, the typography becomes an integral part of the message: soul isn’t just music, it is identity and power. The angled orientation of the fist conveys motion and energy, anchoring the design in both the 1960s cultural context of the original footage and the contemporary relevance of the film’s themes.

Early rollout on social platforms saw strong visual engagement and positive feedback, reinforcing the poster’s role as a compelling promotional asset. This work reinforced my belief in the power of handcrafted typography and conceptual design to communicate cultural meaning and emotional tone.

Below are a few early sketches and explorations that helped shape the final hand-drawn typographic poster. These studies were essential for testing form, composition, and expressive gesture before committing to the final design direction. The sketch on the right was one of the concepts that made the final round yet the final design was stronger overall.