Posters & typography

Various poster designs and custom graphic typography I created throughout my career.

During the first Istanbul Design Biennale had the theme of "Imperfection", selected designers were asked for their interpretation of the event's subject for a specific exhibition, curated as a part of the Biennale. I was honored to be asked for a poster as one of the designers, and my depiction of "Imperfection" was the poster I produced above. I used one of Marilyn Monroe's quotes that made perfect sense for what the people in Istanbul usually have in mind as a common perception of the city: "Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring."

It was a privilege to design the main poster for the first Istanbul Design Biennale. As Istanbul harbors some of the greatest historical, cultural, and city planning intricacies in the world, the theme "Imperfection" was chosen by the biennale's curators. The goal of this poster was to announce the event and the theme of Imperfection as loud and clear as possible, which also provided a good solution for carrying the message on various mediums with a modular system; it allowed us to recreate the same artwork for any aspect ratio, quickly.

The video above is made to illustrate my design process to create this poster. I iterated more than a hundred versions in various design concepts, such as using celebrity impersonators from casting agencies around Istanbul as the subject of imperfection or creating the typography out of 3D materials that are commonly used in the design industry.

I also created posters for the two main exhibitions within the organization, incorporating the theme of Imperfection into these two additional themes that were expositions of the main theme: Adhocracy and Musibet (Calamity) that supported the overall concept.

Poster design for my niece’s first birthday who was born in the UK to multilingual parents. I had it printed on a Quad Crown sized high-grade paper in London and sent to their address.

"MUSIC, FILM, DESIGN, FASHION AND MORE" Poster design for MINI MORE Festival.

"42 Maslak" is a high-rise project in Istanbul, situated in the financial district Maslak, consisting of 42-story twin towers. We were asked to create a poster campaign highlighting the distinct features of this complex; one aimed at investment buyers, one for potential residents, one for the accessible location, and one for its award-winning architecture. We strategically tackled this as if it was a fashion brand to differentiate from others in the traditional construction industry, creating the posters.

Copywriter: Cagri Uluc Kabatas, Evren Dograr
Concept, Typography: Kaan Beyhan
Art Director: Kaan Beyhan
Creative Director: Ilkay Gurpinar
Brand Team: Seda Seker, Güler Balta
Client: 42 Maslak Apartments, Bay Construction
Photography: Emre Gùven, P Block Creative Production
Agency: TBWA Istanbul

SolarCity, New Look New Launch

During my role at SolarCity (now Tesla) as an Art Director, my goal was to elevate our identity experience towards a better brand presence prior to the company acquisition. Below is a poster campaign, one of the many projects I worked on transforming the US solar leader into a premium brand.

Copy: By the time sunlight hits Earth (8 min and 17 sec) at least 2 families switch to SolarCity.

Copy: The average SolarCity customer in CA has saved enough money to buy 176 lattes in 2015."

Copy: SolarCity powers over 300,000 homes with clean renewable energy. That's like powering all the homes in San Francisco.

Copy: SolarCity is the biggest solar provider in the US. We've installed more systems than our next 50 competitors combined.

Credits

Copywriter: Ann Marie Riley
VP of Marketing Design: Walter Whitman
Art Director & Design: Kaan Beyhan
Marketing Manager: Hannah Schaffer

A typographical poster design for International Istanbul Film Festival and its implementations across other mediums.

This project received multiple awards below by the Professional Association of Turkish Graphic Designers (GMK)

- Best Typography awarded by the Professional Association
of Turkish Graphic Designers (GMK)
- Best Poster Design awarded by GMK
- Best Using Outdoor Design awarded by GMK
- Best Cultural & Social Poster Design awarded by GMK
- Special award of Bikem Özsunay Foundation

A poster design for Asia Argento's DJ set performance took place during the Istanbul Movie Festival above.

Credits
Concept Design: Kaan Beyhan, Uluç Çagri Kabatas
Copywriter: Uluç Çagri Kabatas, Evren Dograr
Art Director: Kaan Beyhan
Creative Director: Ilkay Gürpinar
Client Executives: Kaan Özçoban, Güler Balta
Production Team: Kaan Mestut, Ceyda Kayaçetin
Photography: Tolga Türk
Agency: TBWA Istanbul

Cover design for TBWA Istanbul's annual creative report.

Logotype and apparel design for the children's song, a Piece of Peace, that my former agency TBWA created for their client Unesco.

Bottle design + naming proposal for a wine producer in Southwestern Turkey. The exclusive grapes (called Calkarasi) were harvested from a previously volcanic area. So I proposed the name Magma. The second alternative was Venus, due to the hot climate of the area. And third; Iz (meaning "trace" in Turkish), attributing the unique taste of the special grapes.