The Kids are Alright

 

The Kids are Alright. Directed by Lisa Cholodenko

Synopsis:

Two children conceived by artificial insemination bring their birth father into their family life. 

Design by:?

OK if you were expecting The Who living it up before Keith Moon went to the 'big gig in the sky' then your going to be a bit disappointed. This Kids are Alright is a film about a lesbian couple who have had kids by the same sperm donor and now as the kids come of age they want to find out who their Father is. Just as Inception screamed 'special effects Blockbuster!' this poster screams 'Family based Drama!' The colours are bright and fresh, almost summery which is complimented by the image nestled at the bottom of poster enjoying a nice meal outdoors, you just know that there will be highs and lows but essentially it will be all fine by the time the credits roll and you shuffle out into the cold.

The typeface used is Avant Garde Gothic a firm design favourite but one that is more often seen gracing record covers than movie posters. The text is nicely contained in a well defined block with well proportioned sizing of the various typographical elements. All floating it a blue sky. It breaks away from the standard Hollywood formula and as a result feels less heavy. I do find the yellow text a little 'buzzy' and hard to read, especially at smaller point sizes, but who reads all the text on a movie poster anyway!

As we have seen so far there are inevitably variations on the main poster wither it's more actor focused or gives the viewer an expanded view of the film. With this release there s only one other poster that looks like it was only constructed to hold all the nomination credits and gongs. it falls way of the mark set by the original and is the kind of poster that has me looking for the door! 

 

The large blocks of colour interspersed with head shots and over sized quotes  just makes me shiver. This poster holds more stars than most constellations while that lovely constructed block of text is squeezed mercilessly into one corner. When I look at it, it makes me think I've just lost at a game of celebrity Tetris which is never a good thing. 

The French version isn't much better either, it falls well into the usual approach for 'domestic blockbusters such as L.O.L., again lost is the nice fresh construction of the original.

Inception

Inception. Directed by Christopher Nolan.

Synopsis:
In a world where technology exists to enter the human mind through dream invasion, a highly skilled thief is given a final chance at redemption which involves executing his toughest job to date: Inception.

Design: Ignition Print
This is the studio who created the excellent print and poster campaign fort District 9 

This movie poster just screams "special effects blockbuster!" It follows the tried and tested Hollywood formula. I don't think we need to go through the checklist again, save to say that Leonardo DiCaprio is such a global entity that we don't need a headshot, a simple glimpse of him from behind is enough to convey who it is!
The dictionary defines Inception as;   
The beginning of something, such as an undertaking; a commencement.
I don't think that this evident in the poster. We have Mr DiCaprio standing with his back to us, (gun in hand) facing what looks like a serious leak in downtown New York, now either he is out to track down a dodgy case of plumbing, is tackling rising sea levels single handedly or something's amiss! It is only as the rest of the poster series arrives that we can start to piece the theme of the film together.

What I do like about this poster is the typeface used for the title. At first look I thought that it was Labyrinthus Regular but on closer inspection and after reading through a few forums it seems that it looks more like a customised version of Gotham which ties in with subsequent posters that use a solid red Gotham probably due to legibility which is a bit of a shame. The layout leads our eye neatly down from the tag line "The Dream Is Real." or "Your Mind Is The Scene Of The Crime", through the image and the central figure of DiCaprio to the main information, title. credits, logos etc which are neatly blocked together. DiCaprio's billing spans that of the eight other mentioned actors in a widely kerned uppercase that is only matched in girth by the movies title.

The colour palette is carried out through all the poster set, the red and white text sit on the mainly blue dominated images that give us a feeling of a cold, looming fate. All of the imagery for Inception shout 'big budget', 'special effects' and 'nothing appears as it seems', they are really well executed photoshop constructions, there is definitely no hint of the documentary feel that we saw in The Fighter inspite of sharing the same typeface.

As with most of the films I've featured so far, a series of posters are released to give us an expanded idea of the films themes as the release date gets closer. Inception takes this further giving 7 characters their own posters. These employ a similar layout to the main posters just ranging the text block right or left depending on the image and blending the folding city-scapes with the charters headshots.

All in all so far this movie has the most posters, (I have come across 12 but I'm sure there are a few more out there). This is pretty common place especially when it's a blockbuster, wait till you see Toy Story 3. There are the teaser posters, the week of release posters and then the post release posters, with this explosion of versions it is always possible to loose the feeling of unity but this set sits well together, the colour palette is consistent but there are a few inconsistencies in type positioning, size and weights etc (see the last two posters) but the over all feel remains the same even in the poster sub-sets.

The Fighter

 

The Fighter. Directed by David O. Russell

Synopsis: 

A look at the early years of boxer "Irish" Micky Ward and his brother who helped train him before going pro in the mid 1980s.

Design: BLT Associates
If you are in Hollywood and have a movie to promote these seem to be the 'go to' guys.

On first look, there is noting too out of the ordinary with this poster, in fact it seems too ordinary and that is where it starts to lure you in. In the last post Natalie Portman had been Photoshopped almost to abstraction but both Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg are looking relatively normal here, and this is the one of the key things that makes this poster work.  

The Fighter is based on the true life story of Massachusetts born boxer Micky Ward and it is this 'truth' which is the main theme of this release (in a similar way that 'time' was in 127 Hours). The shot of the two main characters has a candid, almost snap shot, documentary feel to it. It shows the two characters aren't engaging with each other, they aren't even looking in the same direction, there is a sense of time passing, for some reason 'Waiting For Godot' springs to mind. The first time I glanced at this poster I though the two actors were leaning on a fence or over a car roof, it was only on a second look that the I noticed Wahlberg was sporting a pair of boxing gloves and that tied the image back to the context of the boxing ring.

The typography is well balanced and contained at the top third of the poster leaving the bottom two thirds free for the image . The use of a simple rule neatly divides the actor credits from the title balancing them out and giving them both an equal billing. The use of Gotham is a good choice as well, it probably still  has a lot of resonance especially in America having been used on The Freedom Tower in 2004 and extensively seen in the Obama Presidential campaign. It has an openness and honesty to it which can only help when your retelling a true story.

Unlike the other films so far The Fighter doesn't have a series, simply a teaser poster which looks a lot more Hollywood and probably pre-dates the Gotham and structure used in the main poster and a more Hollywood, star driven version, this version holds on the the Gotham and the use of black and white hints towards the journalistic and towards other fight films such as Clint Eastwood's unforgettable Million Dollar Baby. I have also come across a couple of 'interpretations' which I thought worth including if for nothing else to hold up against the originals.

Black Swan

 

Next is Black Swan. Directed by Darren Aronofsky.

Synopsis:

A ballet dancer wins the lead in "Swan Lake" and is perfect for the role of the delicate White Swan - Princess Odette - but slowly loses her mind as she becomes more and more like Odette's evil sister, Odile, the Black Swan. 

Design by: Fox Searchlight Pictures

I have tried to track down more information on the design department at Fox Searchlight but have drawn a blank, if anyone has more info please provide a link.

This poster conforms to the standard studio template; a photo of the star, bottom of third of the poster holds the majority of  the information and enough negative in the image to place, press quotes, nomination info etc, all center aligned to give a clear reading path from the image to the text. The image has been photoshopped to within an inch of it's life as you can see from the original poster which was used for the Venice Film Festival, in fact it no longer looks like Natalie Portman, infact it reminds me a bid of Aladdin Sane. and of course the fantastic Pressburger and Powel masterpiece The Red Shoes.

The film deals with the themes of identity and the struggle for perfection which may explain the changing face of the posters. The design is refined and clean placing the viewers focus firmly on Portman's avine eyes and leading them down to the title which is set in a classic serif reflecting the films ballet setting. This poster is one of a set of three, there seems to be no cohesion of typography switching between a serif and modern sans but they all sit around the idea of 'good vs evil' and feature an image of the star with a loose red, black and white colour palette.

I can't ignore the fact that another set of four 'teaser' posters were produced for this film by London based studio LaBoca. The four posters are stunning, drawing visually on a range of influences from Bauhaus,  Polish posters, Art Deco and even a hint of Nazi propoganda. This feeling of time and place is further underlined by a range of Deco inspired fonts including Brittanic, Acier Bat and Monstra. The restricted colour palette and strong use of illustration make you ask why can't all movie posters be like this but there again these are not encumbered by countless credits, studio logos, billing rights, press quotes etc which is maybe a good thing!

I don't think there is a movie or design blog out there that hasn't featured these posters, but just in case you haven't come across them before here they are again.

Friday Photo

The Ghost Train, Portrush Northern Ireland, 2008

127 Hours

OK first up is 127 Hours. Directed by Danny Boyle

Synopsis:
A mountain climber becomes trapped under a boulder while canyoneering alone near Moab, Utah and resorts to desperate measures in order to survive.

Design by: XL
This is from the same design studio who created the fantastic poster for Sideways.
 
The main theme in this film is time and that is captured both beautifully and subtly by this poster; the use of negative space between the two sides of the canyon to suggest an hourglass and the idea of 'time running out' is masterfully done. It rewards the viewer an makes them want to look again which is always a good thing. The feeling of urgency is another idea conveyed through the colour graduation of the sky; blue sky's slowly turning to blood red.

The general layout follows the standard 'movie poster template' but I must admire the tenacity of the designers to fight for 'a concept' over a photo of the main star, especially when he is James Franco! The fonts used are Helvetica and Helvetica Condensed which are clean and clear and do not detract from the visual play of the image and communicate all the salient information.

As is common now there are multiple posters to advertise a film and 127 Hours is no exception. The other variations follow a similar layout to the main poster but fall short of giving you an idea of what the movies about instead opting to show you the star.  One of the alternatives is a halfway house that plays on the idea of one's life flashing before their eyes, but that is a complicate concept to squeeze into a film never mind a poster!

And the winner is…

Ahhh!! only 10 days to go to the most glitzy night in the movie calendar and this year it seems like a bumper crop of contenders vying for the top prize. I know this isn't a movie blog but I thought I'd take a look at the identity end of the market and see which of the contenders for 'Best Picture' has put forward the 'Best Poster'.

If your like me, a visit to your local cinema means perusing the posters for coming attractions while your waiting for the previous sitting to leave and these are usually pretty underwhelming. The tried and tested formula goes like this: a big picture of the star (preferably with a gun or weapon of some sort), their name at the top of the poster, a review quote as near the center of the poster as possible, the name of the film and a footer of credits, logos and other extraneous information taking up the lower part of the poster, just google 'film poster' and anything that has been release since 1980 fits pretty much to this template. So who are this years contenders and how do they measure up?

The nominees for the Oscar for Best Picture 2011 (in no particular order) are;
Black Swan
The Fighter 
Inception
The Kids Are All Right 
The King's Speech
127 Hours 
The Social Network 
Toy Story 3 
True Grit 
Winter's Bone

So 10 films in 10 days,  I might even run a little poll on the side, feel free to vote (in fact I implore you too!!) so we can see if the results on the night match up with the the result here! Stay tuned part one coming up soon.

Will Ever Pray

I am just finishing off the artwork for the first release of the year for Manchester label Front and Follow. It is for an Australian band now based in London and Colechester called The Doomed Bird of Providence. They describe themselves as Australian Colonial Gothic which is reflected in the subject matter of their music and the fantastic illustrations created by Paul Loudon.

Here are a few previews of the artwork so far. It is all being prepared for silk screening at the moment and will released in a limited run of 250 physical copies, so hop over to the F&F shop where you can pre-order it now!

The package will be housed in a natural card gatefold sleeve and will contain a broadsheet/poster insert screen printed on to newsprint. There may even be a few little added extras thrown in as well.

I hope to post a few pics of the package being printed and maybe post a few tracks as well nearer the release date. In the meantime here are a couple of pics of the poster.

St. Valentine's Day

Ah, the red roses, the Belgian chocolates, a card larger than the front door of your house, you wake up to breakfast in bed and your other half have you made hot heart shaped toast covered in strawberry jam to show just how much they love you! Sound familiar? Ah St. Valentines Day, a commercial creation made to make those not in a relationship inadequate and those who are even more so. I remember when I was living in London and was walking home after working late one St Valentine's Day. I passed by restaurant after restaurant filled with tables for two and as many red things as the eye could possibly take in, teddy bears, roses, banners all shouting "LOVE!!"

It was then that it struck me, there were all these ways of saying I love you but very few commercial aids that help you when you have lost that loving feeling and need to sit down and say "I think we need to talk…" It was this in mind that along with Pika Pika we created the "Break-up Card". A little card to help you say I don't love you. We sat down and talked about all the ways we broke the news or had the news broken to us and there were a few that just kept popping up again and again and it was these that we felt would be great for our cards.

We got a beautiful red velvety paper and de-bossed these cliches in silver foil then to finish it all off we placed them in an ominous black envelope.

If you find yourself in need of a little help breaking the news then pop on over to the Pika Pika shop and choose your line.

Friday Photo

Holgagram, Bournmouth 2005

Paper animation

Making Of Oi FM from Giroscópio Filmes on Vimeo.

I came across this on a great website called Strictly Paper, which highlights projects that do extraordinary things with paper. The just featured this animation by a Brazilian studio called  Giroscópio Filmes. The animation is great but  the 'making of' is something else! With a project of this kind my automatic default says "Yeah great but I bet they did it all with 3D-max or Maya!" but no each frame was drawn, traced, arranged printed out then cut and animated! If you liked this then you can find more of their work here.  OK just one more!


Consciente Coletivo - ep 06 from Giroscópio Filmes on Vimeo.

Hiss Golden Messenger

Just a quick plug for tonight's Hiss Golden Messenger at Kings Place in London, kicking off the 2011 Arctic Season of events. It has gained Time Out's Critics choice so if you find yourself at a loose end and in need of some 'Mystical Country' (David Bowie's description-not mine!) then pop down to Kings Place, more info can be found here.

Friday Photo

French Alps, Grenoble 2008

Back in the USSR

While a fresh faced Fab Four were running up the charts, pulling quirky faces and declaring that they wanted ' to hold your hand' in the UK and The Shangri-Las were telling us all about 'The leader of the Pack' in the States, Russia was founding it's state wide record company. The record company was called Melodiya Records, or to give it its full name the "All-Union Gramophone Record Firm of the USSR Ministry of Culture Melodiya", (no wonder it got abbreviated).

I came across a batch of their releases recently and was amazed to find out that they were the only record label in Russia, I know next to nothing about how the label worked except that they touched on all forms of music, from Classical to traditional folk to ballads and songs from popular films. Also according to wikipediea Melodiya released some of the really popular western artists like The Beatles and Abba! If anyone out there has more information on the label and its releases I would be really interested in hearing about them. In the meantime here are a few scans of some of the sleeves, The sleeves are printed on really thin low grade paper and the actual 7" records are 'flexi-discs'.

This was typical of the releases I have seen, there are no labels
all the information is pressed directly on to the thin plastic record.

The abstract geometric designs reminded me some of the illustrations created by textile designer Barbara Brown, who moonlighted as a record sleeve designer in the 1950's, I haven't been able to track down any of the names of the designers who worked at Meloydia during the 1960's,or who created their logo again, if you know of anyone please drop me a line.

Commission 45

I just created the logo for a new Paris based record label called Commission 45.

Commission 45 take it's name from the bureau that is charged with giving stars their name, but I was strictly told to stay away from any star references in the brief! I did manage to get away with an infinity mark though.

The logo is designed to work as you see it above as well as an abbreviated version as shown on the t-shirt below. I'll keep you posted on any further applications as the label grows.