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!

Star Wars travel poster

Artist Justin van Genderen makes traveling to planets in the Star Wars universe look so retro hip that you would probably have to knock and have a codeword ready to enter places like Cloud City or Tatooine. View the rest with Justin van Genderen’s Flickr stream which popped up on illustration and cartoon art blog Drawn! In one of the comments of the original io9 post,  a reader wrote that these posters reminded them of Simon Page’s  International Year of Astronomy 2009 posters that I wrote about here. I completely agree—manly because I clicked on the post to read it because I thought the posters were by Simon page. Small world, no?

Via io9.

Milky Way Transit Authority

The map, titled Milky Way Transit Authority, was created by Harvard computational sociologist Samuel Arbesman. He had the idea to make the map while reading Carl Sagan’s Contact and contemplating the organization and presentation of galactic data in a format that is familiar easy-to-read, such as a subway map. Arbesman said:

This map is an attempt to approach our galaxy with a bit more familiarity than usual and get people thinking about long-term possibilities in outer space. Hopefully it can provide as a useful shorthand for our place in the Milky Way, the ‘important’ sights, and make inconceivable distances a bit less daunting. And while convenient interstellar travel is nothing more than a murky dream, and might always be that way, there is power in creating tools for beginning to wrap our minds around the interconnections of our galactic neighborhood.I have attempted to actually make this map as accurate as possible, where each line corresponds to an arm of our galaxy, and the stations are actual places in their proper locations.

Arbesman says he is open to input from those with ideas to improve the map and/or make it more accurate. You can read more on his project page devoted to the Milky Way Transit Authority.

via io9.

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.

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.

AIGA Design Archives Online

Love to look at what others are doing? Looking for inspiration? Love to look at excellent design? Head on over to the AIGA Design Archives, which feature selection from AIGA’s Annual Design Competitions. Covering everything from Brand and Identity Systems Design to Book Design, you’ll find a wealth of resources. With a sleek interface that’s easy to figure out and navigate, it’s a pleasure to browse through. Excellent design? Check. Inspiring? Check.

Works on the archive are selected from these AIGA competitions:

• About 365: AIGA Annual Design Competition
• About 50 Books/50 Covers competition
• Winterhouse Awards for Design Writing & Criticism
• Worldstudio AIGA Scholarships
• INDEX: | AIGA Aspen Design Challenge
• Regional AIGA competitions

I flip through these when I get them in print form every year as part of my AIGA membership, and it’s always a celebration of good design. Not just good looking, but good design. Good design looks good most of the time, but really isn’t it just doing it’s job? It makes us comfortable looking at the information, even inviting us sometimes. Making us feel comfortable (or uncomfortable) with the message. One of my professors told us once that Design is a logical sequence of events. And I agree with him. There’s an audience, a context, and a purpose. These are considered and evaluated, research has focuses our options, and execution and refinement have polish the project to a degree which makes the design exceptional.

Of course, good design often looks easy, and that’s part of the appeal. It looks easy because it’s relating to the viewer. The viewer feels almost like they could have thought of it themselves. And that’s a very good thing if you want to get your message across.

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.