The Trip - Movie Poster

Original Dubonnet Wine Poster

Designer Daily brings us another one of their great collections. This one looks at movie posters from last year. Most seem to be from indie films which is not just OK, but pretty appropriate and not surprising since most Hollywood big budget blockbuster movie posters aren’t really concerned with good design. Instead they want to get you in the theater right ASAP.

All of these movie posters do an awesome job at letting you know very quickly what the movie is about (which is after all, the function of the movie poster in the first place).

I chose to include the one for the movie The Trip (which is great BTW–I thank my wife for suggesting we watch it) because it is clearly and purposely ripping off of the famous Dubonnet wine advertisement poster from 1956.

The writers at Designer Daily also recommend this gallery at Mubi.com which includes these plus more goodies, and some actual big budget hollywood blockbuster type movie posters that actually are good. You can view the full gallery at Designer Daily here. Happy movie watching!

Absolut Blank Online Gallery

Iconic vodka Absolut continues the iconic branding campaign with a delightful gallery of finished Absolut-bottle-silohuette-turned-work-of-art pieces that are as fresh as 30 years ago when the campaign was new. The original campaign was created around 1980 by advertising agency TBWA. The focus of the campaign has always been  the unique shape of the bottle. TBWA worked with photographer Steven Bronstein, and now includes more than 1500 ads. It is the company’s longest running campaign. It’s clear why and why it has many more years to come. Always nice to peruse all the iterations of the now familiar bottle.

Starbucks is keeping up with the sense of pace that they create and manage for its ubiquitous brand.

They’ve updated their logo once again and this time with a decidedly minimalist presentation. They’ve put away the copy  “Starbucks Coffee” and the  palette is now one color.

All versions of the Starbucks logo applied to paper cups

Here’s a bit  of  what MSNBC had to say:

Starbucks says the changes amount to more than nips and tucks to its favorite lady. The fresh look goes with a new direction for the company as it makes its way back from its toughest times in its 40-year history.

The Starbucks logo through the years

And yes, we’re al familiar with the logo’s colorful controversy. A reminder courtesy of Adfreak for those who forget:

The inspiration for the siren logo—early versions of which have been called obscene by some—goes back to a 16th century Norse woodcut found by Seattle graphic designer Terry Heckler.

(pics and more via Starbucks)

AIGA published this great little article recounting the tale of how the NYC Subway system went from a labyrinth filled with mosaic and hand-made signs in a variety of colors, sizes, styles, and more–to a highly organized signage system. They made it look so easy!

We’ve all been witness to the efficiency of this system so we don’t even think about it anymore. They made it look so easy! This is on of those articles that you want to print and read offline on a Saturday afternoon. And that’s just one of the design wonders that the 20th century brought into existence.

NYC Subway signs - before

Mosaic subways signs (from the top): 1 train, Rector Street (1918); 1 train, South Ferry (1904); N/R/W, Prince Street (1917); “To 19th,” 1 train, 18th Street (1918); L, Morgan Avenue (1928); “Down town,” 4/5/6, 86th Street (1917); “Up town,” R/W, Whitehall Street (1918); E/F/G/R/V, Grand Avenue, Newtown (1936); M/R, F connection to 9th Street (1915) and BMT, Fourth Avenue (1933). Caption courtesy of AIGA.

NYC Subway signs - after

(top and bottom rows): From the 1970 NYCTA Graphic Standards Manual, Unimark Design Consultants, a page indicating directional information, the cover and and typeface instruction using Standard, not Helvetica; (middle) “Donna” illustration of platform signage by Bob Noorda (c.1966, colorized in 2008). Caption courtesy of AIGA.

Design:Related List of Lists for 2009

I hope you have some time to read. I mean read. Design:Related has a List of Design Lists for 2009. What does that mean? It means that right on that page, you’ll find a wealth of interesting Design reading. They have gathered over 100 lists in the following categories:

• Architecture
• Blogs
• Books, Comics, and Magazines
• Fashion
• Food
• General Design
• General News
• Green/Sustainability
• Movies, TV, Animation, and Video
• Music
• Photography
• Strange/Weird/Funny
• Technology
• Tutorials and Resources
• Video Games

My head is spinning. Yes, we’re in May 2010. These lists also cover the decade. And, it’s good to know these lists are here to come back and catch up with on a holiday. Not all categories appeal to everyone–I know I have my priorities of what I want to read. And there is still a lot to catch up with.

International Year of Astronomy 2009 promotional poster by Simon Page

To celebrate the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first glimpse of the night sky with a telescope, and the publication of Kepler’s Astronomia Nova, The United Nations declared 2009 the International Year of Astronomy. To promote the year-long celebration, they hired Simon Page.

But what is fascinating about this story is that he is a trained mathematician who never planned to work in graphic design. Page graduated university with a degree in applied mathematics in his native United Kingdom. After graduating he worked in London’s financial sector and later in programming & database development. This type of new work brought about the necessity for presentations, and they had to be top-notch–he then did what any mathematician would do and decided to design them himself.

So now he’s found a new career in graphic design.  How? He was inspired by the IYA 2009 celebration and decided to make his own promotional posters for the year-long event. When the staff at IYA 2009 saw his work online, they deiced to take the opportunity to use the posters as the official posters.

Below is a quote from a recent interview with the design blog Grain Edit, where Page discussed the influence of his mathematics background has on his work:

I think maths has inspired me hugely and influenced more geometric designs than I probably would of created otherwise. I also think a lot of artists, like myself, subliminally use mathematics in their creations – such as the golden ratio for creating eye candy layout designs.

I find it very satisfying getting mathematically correct proportions when designing something like a logo, for example. But for me the main connection between math and design is pure and simple, it’s geometry. The golden ratio is probably one of the most popular examples of math and design coming together but look back at the works of Leonardo Da Vinci, for instance, he used mathematics all the time in his art. I also believe some of the best designers work with math, in a number of aspects, even though they probably do it completely subconsciously.

To read the rest of his interview with Grain Edit and see more of his work use this link.

Below are the thumbnails with links to the source photo gallery on io9.

Images courtesy of io9.

Metropolis movie poster

I have to admit that I was looking forward to seeing the posters in this collection by Designer Daily. I think they’re very good for the most part. But the ones that I’m still thinking about are the ones that I did not expect to see in this collection.

I didn’t have any posters in mind, but I was not surprised to see the awesome Metropolis poster, 50′s sci-fi posters like The Forbidden Planet, and swinging 60′s posters like Vertigo. Those are the kind that while they do show very iconic and memorable eras of the movie posters, they represent what we already knew–our own western and typically commercial movie posters.

This collection becomes more memorable because it is including different posters that are from other countries and film genres. I was very glad to see the poster for The Wall (rock musical film), and the posters from movies from other countries like Teorema.

The collection also shows that no matter what era, a great movie poster could be executed many different using different elements to support the composition and convey the meaning. From typography to image+type placement to shapes+lines, you can clearly see that there is an abundance of things to do that are unique.

Why then is it that so many movie posters today have so many floating heads, cityscapes, actors standing around, and so many other unimaginative things. There is so much to choose from.

Design History Primer 2 - Handwriting to Printed Type

Moving on to the second page of Design History lecture guides by Design History.org which covers the beginnings of writing and how it came to be what we know today.

This page groups the information into five major trends in the history of writing.

1. Early Writing in Clay and Stone
Writing started as humans stopped living nomadic lives and started to settle. They use the Clay Bullae used in Mesopotamia as an accounting tool to record transactions.

As the need to record more than agricultural transactions emerged, Cuneiform provided a way to communicate ideas and concepts with horizontal rows of symbols pressed into clay tablets. The symbols were abstracted from pictograms of animals (for example).

In Egypt, writing and relief carving merged into the Hyeroglyphics that adorned the walls inside pharaohs’ tombs. This system used both rebus and phonetic characters and is thus the first link to an alphabetic system of writing.

Not so far away in ancient Greece, Early Greek was arranged in horizontal rows, and was read switching directions on every other row. It is believed that Greeks borrowed the alphabet from the Phoenicians and added vowels.

And still in the Mediterranean neighborhood, the Romans copied the Greek style. In Early Roman Lapidary they carved letters in stone that were equal in width and did not have serifs. Early on they used dots to divide words.

The serifs originated with the development that lead to Classical Roman Lapidary. It is theorized that the serifs were developed to decrease the possibility of stones splintering at the end of a carved line, as well as to possibly mimic the way the brush strokes produced varying thickness of the letters when the letters were painted on the stone initially as guides.

Special mention in this section goes to Trajan’s Column. The letters in the inscription at its base are considered to display the ultimate results of the development of Latin letterforms. The characters have been studied by type designers for almost 20 centuries and have inspired many spinoff typefaces. Some include reinterpretations by Edward Johnston, Eric Gill and Carol Twombly.

2. Majuscules and Minuscules
During the 1st century AD, Roman Capitals emerged in early attempts to copy the attributes of letters that were originally carved in stone. Roman Capitals were mostly written on vellum paper using a reed that had a flat edge, or a quill nib.

Early Christian works during the 5th century AD show the development of Uncials letterforms, which were taken from the square capitals that were previously carved in stone and also from written majuscules. It was written between 2 guidelines of one uncial — the Roman name for the one-inch measure.

One more century led to the Half Uncials. During the 6th century AD, Half Uncials were written between four guidelines that allowed the development of ascenders and descenders. This newer style was easier and faster to execute.

The Carolingian Minuscule came about during the 8th century (789 — 1100′s). Emperor Charlemagne decreed that the entire Holy Roman Empire use a standard style of writing as a way of uniting his regime. It is believed that the Carolingian Minuscule was developed by the British monk Alcuin of York. His letterforms are based on classic documents from ancient Rome. During the Renaissance (centuries later) the Carolingian handwriting was mistaken for the original Roman style. It was copied and labeled a “Classical” handwriting style. The Alcuin of York founded a school for monks that featured the following standards for clear and legible script:

1. Uniform spelling
2. The Carolingian style of well-formed lowercase letters
3. Capitals to begin a sentence and lowercase to continue
4. Space between words
5. Standard punctuation
6. Division into sentences and paragraphs.

Blackletter: The Gothic Hands
Handwriting styles became more condensed and angular after the death of emperor Charlemagne. To conserve space and materials, word, line, and letter spacing were reduced. Carolingian and Blackletter handwriting were developed in France. Both evolved into variations of regional style. There are 4 basic styles of Blackletter that emerged from 13 to 16th centuries.

• Textura (formal)
• Rotunda (formal)
• Bastarda (semi-formal)
• Cursive (informal)

3. Renaissance and the Humanist letter : Quill Pen & Compass
Renaissance Humanism arose in Florence, Italy as scholars sought to recapture their lost heritage by re-evaluating the literature of ancient Greece and Rome. Humanism was committed to the idea that ancient Greece and Rome was the peak of human achievement and should be taken as a model by Europeans at the time.

Transcribers used two forms of letters based upon the ancient (or antique) Roman models: The Lettera Antiqua formata (for elaborate manuscripts) and the Lettera Antiqua corsiva (more informal) for scholarly works.

Leon Battista Alberti, believed the circle and the square are the most perfect geometrical forms, and that architecture and the alphabet should use them as their base. He restored the Roman tradition of inscribing letters on facades.

4. Steel Pens & Engraving
George Bickham published The Universal Penman in 1741. It was the considered the ultimate guide to English penmanship. It was also a compilation of broadsides, that focused on a different art, profession, emotion, or human moral. Aside from the handwriting, many of the broadsides are highlighted with engraved vignette illustrations by Bickham. He wrote books that were not only decorative, but also examples of easy-to-read and easy-to-write styles for business clerks and others who required a much writing and record-keeping.

5. Letterforms in Metal : Mechanical Writing Leads to a Cultural Explosion
Johann Gutenberg developed a modular “moveable type” system in about 1450, even though printing had been practiced in Asia for several hundred years and Europeans had been printing type with wooden blocks for about one hundred years. Johann Gutenberg is the commonly accepted inventor of modular moveable type system although different people were working on a system of “automated writing”.

A letter was carved on the end of a steel bar. The is is called the punch. Then a matrix was created when that letterform is struck into copper. Gutenberg was a jeweler by profession and was knowledgeable in metal carving, casting, and knew which metals worked best for each stage of his process. He developed inks that would adhere to metal surfaces.

A clever inventor, Gutenburg was not a very good businessman. He borrowed considerably from Johann Fust. When Gutenberg could not pay his debts, Fust sued and took over the business. Fust then partered with his brother-in-law Peter Schoeffler they produced the bible around 1455. Still to this day it is known as the Gutenberg bible.

Gutenberg did not use Roman style lettering. Instead he used the Blackletter style. He hoped it would replicate handwriting. Scholars believe that Gutenberg designed a font that included 270 characters which used several variations of each letter to add a human factor.

Within 50 years, over one thousand printers established themselves across Europe, and many people tried to establish control of the technology. Professional scribes feared the technology would cost them their livelihoods. Religious and sometimes secular authorities attempted to control the content of what was printed. Some were successful—for hundreds of years books could only be printed by printers who were authorized by the government, or with the approval of the Church in some European countries. These printers would be held responsible instead of the authors for the ideas considered “unwanted” by some. Printers were even executed. In the end most of these restraints eventually fell.

Jekyll & Hyde Movie Poster update

Classic movie posters used to be very indicative of what was happening in the world of design at any given time. Yes, there were many that were derivative and looked like many other posters, but there was plenty of ground being covered and many unique posters. Not so much anymore. Many movie posters look alike today, and that’s about it. I was very glad to see this post by Communication Arts.

The post shows a sample of movie posters that were updated by update to advertise Turner Classic Movies’ summer movie event Summer Under The Stars. This annual programming event features the films of a different movie star each day during the month of August.

This year, New Jersey’s One Trick Pony launched a website that captured the films with an updated look to promote event. They all look great and really capture the films. The full Summer Under the Stars site launched August 1 , showcasing 31 posters for classic films, each redesigned with a contemporary look. The site featured a calendar of dowloadable posters, a full programming schedule complete with a video clip for each title, a Twitter feed that updated what was playing through the month, and a widget that highlighted a new photo and video that reflected the current programming schedule.

Rocky IV movie poster

Head back over to Designer Daily for a different collection of Cold War propaganda. This time the focus is on pro-america. All the examples are from post World War II. It also covers literature and comic books, media and advertising, and movies. Note how much more commercial the types of media that are covered. The nature of the west or a product of the post-WWII boom, or both?

I can’t help but notice how much more emphasis this collection puts on making the other side a villain. I also don’t think it’s mere coincidence and that the folks that gathered these had anything like this in mind when they put these together. As a mid-thirties Gen-Xer I clearly remember how the east was portrayed everywhere in the media up until the end of the Cold War–and even after. Rocky IV is still one of my favorite movies of all time despite all of this.

Another thing that I noticed, is that the commercial nature of many of the samples in this collection–and therefore the lofty goal of reaching vast audiences, takes away from the designs and leaves and they fall short of greatness. They don’t even evoke any nostalgia. Hm.

Sample courtesy of Designer Daily.

Lenin: V. Briskin, 1970

This collection of posters from Designer Daily splashes around a bit of nostalgia from Cold War era design. This collection features posters from the Soviet Union or independent political activist groups for the most part. In my opinion it also shows what designers were–and are still–capable of.

No shots were fired during this war, but the weight of these images was enough to move the minds of the masses for decades. I also find these images liberating. Just the designer and the work. Direct connection. In the age where a computer is king when it comes to design, who would even think of taking on a task such as making one of these posters by hand for every project? A lot of us would really like to do that today. How much of a reality that can be in this day and age is up for debate–at least in a mass scale. Pro-bono, freelance, or highly unique projects can still lend themselves to such retro tech. The thumbnail sketch provides the spark that many projects need. Numerous manual sketches can take a design to a whole new level. But ultimately, the vast majority of design work is completed using the computer in one way or another. Just looking at these posters we can almost see the designers sitting on their draft tables making these posters freehand.

In any case, the posters can serve as a reference, inspiration, food for debate, material for analysis, or retro decor. I know I wouldn’t mind having one of these up on my home office wall. Look for the follow up on their follow up, featuring pro-american or anti-communist Cold War propaganda posters.

Sample courtesy of Designer Daily.