Visual Communication Blog

As part of my Visual Communication Class I'll will be uploading a selection of images each week and explain what they communicate to me.  

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As our final assignment is to design a film poster I have been researching what is the essential aspects when it come to movie poster design.

One interesting article I came across is Movie Poster Design 101: The Anatomy of a Movie Poster

https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/movie-poster-design-101-the-anatomy-of-a-movie-poster--cms-35852

The article opens discussing what is the standard movie poster size such as the different sizes for theaters, subway/bus stops and posters sold by retailers. Next article explains what all movie poster designs have in common such as title, stars(s), director and release date. Followed by this the software required to create a movie poster is explained such as Adobe Photoshop or Affinity Photo. The article continue to discuss topics such as the history of movie poster design and common traits of different move poster genres.

I’m looking forward to applying what I learned from this article to my movie poster design for my final assignment.

https://moomar.co.uk/inspiring-redesigned-movie-posters/

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The following is a cover of TIME magazine in 2018 by artist Tim O’Brien. It depicts Donal Trump in the oval office but completely submerged in water.

I feel this image is as relevant as ever with Trumps attempt at insurgency causing a capital riot leading to the trashing/looting of the oval office.  

More information on the background on the image can be found here https://time.com/5374572/donald-trump-time-cover-in-deep/

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The following is a picture of the Sydney Opera House it is one of the most iconic buildings in the world and when it comes to architecture one of the most unique.

233 designs were submitted for the Opera House international design competition held in 1956. Jørn Utzon from Denmark was announced the winner, receiving $5000 for his design.

It comprises of three groups of interlocking shells, which cover two main performance halls and a restaurant. A masterpiece of modern architecture, the opera house has become an iconic symbol of both Sydney and the Australian nation.

There are so many interesting facts/trivia about the history of the Sydney Opera House some of these facts can be found on their official website https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/our-story/sydney-opera-house-facts.html 

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During Christmas there are many iconic adverts however none are as well known as the Holidays are Coming ad that first came out in 1995 as part of the Coca Cola  seasonal advertising campaign.

However Coca Cola has a long history using Santa Claus for it holiday adverts.

In 1931, the company commissioned an illustrator named Haddon Sundblom to create an oil painting of Santa drinking a coke during Christmas. Sundblom based his image on the concept of Santa from the Clement Clarke Moor Poem, “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”, all the way down to the rosy cheeks, and round belly.

This image of Santa Claus, decked in Coca Cola’s distinctive brand colours, was mixed with a little bit of careful brand building, and in no time, Coke’s version of Father Christmas was being embraced by cultures around the world. Eventually, the company was able to transform their concept of Santa Claus, into the definitive icon of the holiday season.

This following article goes into detail of Coca Cola festival branding

https://medium.com/@Stewart_Fabrik/holidays-are-coming-the-coca-cola-christmas-branding-story-8f08e2be8def

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When it comes to books a good cover should be able represent the theme of the story and is just as important of a poster for a movie are the cover art of an album. One example of this is How the Dead Live by Derek Raymond, The broken plate on the cover display violence the reader can expect to encounter within.The space between the broken plate depict an image of a skull, and an orange background serves emphasise to it.The text in the design allows for the image to take centre stage. It’s clear and easily readable, using a simple font that doesn’t cause distraction.

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In our last class we took a look at logos and how import it is for your brand.

An interesting article I read this week was the top 20 Logo Design Trends For 2020.

https://medium.com/@thelogocreative/top-20-logo-design-trends-for-2020-db6a57e04266

The article explains how many areas of design evolves every year to meet the needs of the business world. It explains how a logo is a crucial part of a brand’s image and that It is one asset that is solely responsible for communicating the values, personality, and quality standards of businesses and how it is the most visible symbol of a brand and gets printed on every product and service of a company.

The article take 20 logo design trends based on their past predictions with some developments in the past trends, while others are fresh stylistic choices that sensationally grab the eyes of the public.

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As one of our next assignments is to design a movie poster I would like to include one of my favourite movie posters from the Quentin Tarantino movie Pulp Fiction.

The movie poster is designed to look like a magazine cover, it includes retro fonts, a ten cent price tag and it even looks weathered and wrinkled like it has been read.

The Designer of the poster is James Verdesoto who has won may awards for this Pulp Fiction designs and many posters he designed for Miramax Films.

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We’ve been covering visual rhetoric in class and last week in particular we looked at photography and how images can tell a story with and without words.

This image is from Sobic Tours and Safaris in Kenya. The photo for me conveys danger. Tourists who travel in open safari vehicles and have been/can be involved in many close encounters with wild lions and other predators.  

While this is dangerous on the other hand these safaris often help pay in conservation efforts in protecting the animals.

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A photo I took of the Brighton Bathing Boxes in Melbourne.

There are 82 distinctive bathing boxes, a row of uniformly proportioned wooden structures lining the foreshore at Brighton Beach.

They were built over a century ago and are almost unchanged, All retain classic Victorian architectural features with timber framing, weatherboards and iron roofs, each of them displays artistic and colourful designs with a large number of them representing individual countries.

These boxes turn the Brighton seaside into an immediately recognisable, iconic beachscape and I now one of the major tourist attractions in Melbourne.

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The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers is an iconic album and its visually memorable cover is a stunning example of creativity having a working zipper on the album cover.

In 1969, artist Andy Warhol was approached by the Rolling Stones to create the cover art for their upcoming greatest hits album, Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2). Whatever Warhol created for the set was seemingly never used, but his concept of employing a working zipper on an album cover came to fruition on the cover of Sticky Fingers. With photographs by Warhol (focused on the bulging jeans of a still-unidentified male model) and graphic design by Craig Braun, the set would earn a Grammy Award nomination for best album cover. (Jenny Reagan, 2020)

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In todays class we looked at Imagery. The following image is used as part of a McDonald’s advert.

In the picture above, each burger looks perfectly made and quite appetizing. In reality they look virtually nothing like McDonalds' burgers. The angle that the photograph is taken makes the burgers look bigger and tastier.

The dropping sauce and the meats almost falling out creates sensual imagery.

The two traditional McDonald's colors are shown in the advertisement, we can see that this is McDonalds that is advertising and not another burger brand.

The logo and slogan can also be found on the top right corner.

This image shows that imagery is a powerful tool for marketing as it often projects the product to be more appealing than it is in reality.

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In our last class we looked at typography, one typeface we looked at was Helvetica. It is one of the most famous and used typeface as it is easy to read and provide clear communication of the goal of the typography.

For example you can see the font used in the poster for the popular TV series Mad Men is Helvetica Neue Heavy making the poster easy to read and aesthetically pleasing.

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This graffiti is found on the Milwaukee River, The Milwaukee Riverkeeper is a science-based advocacy organization working for swimmable, fishable rivers throughout the Milwaukee River Basin.

This art takes advantage of structures and using creativity this graffiti is made to sensitize people and comes accompanied with the message “A clean river is a fun river.” In this case it is not intended to advertise a product or to disclose a brand but rather to alert to an environmental cause. 

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In our last class we looked at colors and shapes, this image is the official logo of the UEFA Champion/Europa League. With the use of simple shapes and design it resembles a ball. I believe this would be one of the most recognizable logos in Europe even with the simple design. 

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Some photos I took in around the mural district in Sofia, due to the country’s socialist past the neighborhood is filled with concrete surfaces with grey high tower flats not really a place you might find yourself when you visit Bulgaria’s capital however I found the art brought colour and beauty to the city stressing the importance of public art proving that walls can speak and tell stories. 

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This visual was used in a Seven Eleven advert. It uses colours for the slurpees to depict a traffic light. I feel the vibrant colours and use of visual imagery of this poster really grab the attention of the consumer.

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A photo I took in New Zealand, This photo always remind me of a car advert as it displays a full body shot of a car and includes nature/scenery in the background found on many TV car commercials.