Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Blog 14 2001: A Space Odyssey



2001: A Space Odyssey is an adaptation of a Arthur C. Clark's story The Sentinel.  The film was co-written by Clark and director Stanley Kubrick.  This poster was used during the film's initial release and became the primary advertising image for the film in the 1970s. [King]  I was unable to find the designer for the poster.

Humans are naturally attracted to the human face and even more attracted to babies because of the larger proportion of their eyes.  This poster uses the baby's face as the focal point.  It naturally pulls the audience in.  The eyes are enchanting and eerie at the same time.  The graininess of the photo creates a distance from the observer and the subject.  It also appears that the subject is glowing in an odd, supernatural way.  Yet we are still attracted to the beauty of the child...

The type treatment is simple - san serif, probably Helvetica -   "2001:A SPACE ODYSSEY" in upper case at the bottom of the poster and "the ultimate trip" in lower case at the top.  The poster leaves so much to the imagination and creates anticipation in the viewer.  I feel this is a highly effective movie poster because it plays off our emotions and our societal ideas of beauty.

Source:  King, Emily, A Century of Movie Posters from Silent to Art House, Octopus Publishing Group, Ltd, 2003.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Blog 13 Alien

Movie Poster by: Steve Frankfort and Philip Gips




Ridley Scott, the director of Alien (1977), is highly involved in the promotion of his films. [King]  He wanted the poster for Alien to tantalize the audience with the chilling tagline "In space no one can hear you scream."  But he didn't want to give away anything else about the film. This film and its advertising campaign was so successful that it has become part of the current culture - "In space no one can hear you scream," and the visual of the egg hatching summon fears of distant and unknown terror.

The poster uses many design principles to create the successful image.  The focal point is the mysterious egg breaching with light and green smoke flowing out of the crack.  The black background and shadowing of the emphasis the egg further.  The san serif lettering (Helvetica?) is used for both the title and the tagline. The title lettering is large, open, and uses a bold, heavy font; whereas, the tagline is small, tight, and uses a lighter font. 

The piece is well balanced.  The eye is lead through the piece in a logical manner.  First drawn to the egg, the focal point, then the title, subtext, and then the mysterious grid at the bottom of the page.  Unity is created through the use of the same typeface, color, and grouping.  The green smoke is repeated.  The egg is grouped with the tagline - creating a tension - what is in the egg that will make you scream? 


Source:  King, Emily, A Century of Movie Posters from Silent to Art House, Octopus Publishing Group, Ltd, 2003.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Blog 12 A TA ME!

 
Movie Poster by: Juan Gatti

Since the mid-1980's Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar has worked exclusively with designer and photographer Juan Gatti in the creation of the graphic identities of his films.[King]  According to King, they both draw heavily from the history of film design in putting together a series of motifs that not only promote the theme of the film but also define Almodóvar's work as a unit.

This particular poster screams SAUL BASS to me.  The hand drawn lettering, flat clean graphic style, the careful & limited use of color, and the application of simple shapes to create a powerful image epitomize Bass' style through and through.  The asymmetry of this piece is appealing to me and adds to the unnerving imagery.  The focal point couldn't be clearer - the bold white text jumps off the page.  The work is unified by color and shape and balanced asymmetrically.  Oh, translated the title means "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!"  It was released in 1989.

Source:  King, Emily, A Century of Movie Posters from Silent to Art House, Octopus Publishing Group, Ltd, 2003.