Visual Noise

I think this piece is a great example of graphic design. The image is pretty simple, but it's definitely striking. The screaming face fading into visual static noise goes great with the title. The use of actual noise, the specs of color branching out along the left side of the DVD cover is pretty clever as well. Three examples of noise are used throughout the entire piece: The visual noise, the depiction of audio noise, and the title. I love the contrast of the typography and the background. Also, the smearing of the letters underneath the prominent white letters of the title further gives viewers visual interest, as well as upholding the purpose of the title, which is mimicking the visuals of sound frequencies. Overall, the image is creepy and can cause quite the impact when being exposed to the right crowd. The function of this design is to cause fear and capture interest in horror fans to get them to want to purchase the DVD. I was unable to find the exact designer for this piece, but it belongs to Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

A Sleepy Haze

After seeing some people post images of movies, books, and CD covers with great examples of graphic design on them, I decided to take a look at my own collection for a change and see if there was anything worthy to blog about. I'm a HUGE Stephen King fan, but a lot of his covers are extremely weird and all over the place. This newer publication, however, is a great example of graphic design, in my opinion. The title "Doctor Sleep" is exemplified by the style of the typography. All of the letters are made up of what appears to be a smoke or haze. When we think of the words "sleep" and "dream," what do we envision? Movies depict dream sequences usually with an accompanied haze or foggy filter, sometimes even a smoky border around the frame. Therefore the smoke-styled typography goes well with the accompanied title of the novel. The typography also gives the cover a mood. Since the letters are wispy and moving in all directions, you would assume it would create a chaotic feel, but seeing as how smoke moves in a slow manner, there's a very calm and tranquil feeling just by looking at the letters. The main focus is obviously the text based on the colors used. The background is very dark and the text is white and stands out in the contrast. The only image we see used is of a woman in red behind the letters. We only see her in the center of the cover however, and the rest of her image fades out everywhere else. This doesn't detract the focus from the text. The splash of red gives a sort of dangerous tone, possibly an alert, which contrasts with the feel of the text. The function of this cover is to grab attention from the public and sell copies of the book. Stephen King's name is huge and takes up half of the cover, which people immediately see. With his reputation, just seeing he has a new novel released is enough to have people reaching for their wallets. It worked on me, seeing as how I still have yet to read it, yet it is sitting on the table right next to me as I type up this blog. Congrats, Mr. King, you've done it again.

The jacket design for the book was done by Tal Goretsky, and the jacket illustration was by Sean Freeman.

Just Breathe

There's a couple of reasons why I love this image. First of all, I'm obsessed with bare trees. I find them to be extremely beautiful. The other reason I love this image is because you don't immediately see that bare trees are used until you look closely. I thought it was a rather clever way to represent lungs by using a mirrored image of the top of a bare tree. The caption simply says "Breathe" in big bold black letters. This has a double meaning with the representation of lungs. We breathe into our lungs, but the oxygen is mostly provided by trees. Overall, this image is very simple, but very innovative as well. This poster was designed to create awareness and prevent the clearing of so many old growth forests for the Rainforest Action Network. I found this poster in Graphis Poster Annual '08/'09, which was edited by B. Martin Pedersen.

Blood On Your Hands: A Decision

Lester Beall loved to put confrontation of opposing sides into his designs. This is one such piece. In this 1939 ad created for the Crowell Publishing Company, the question "Will there be war?" is asked. The purpose of this ad is to force Americans to choose a side pertaining to either joining the Allied Forces in World War II, or to stay out of the war altogether. The image shows Winston Churchill in front of a red hand print. The red can symbolize getting blood on one's hands, danger, fear, and the tension between the conflicting sides of the argument. The text for "will there be war" is slanted at a diagonal to go along with Winston Churchill's image, which creates an undecided feeling, much like the decision Americans were looming on. Winston Churchill warned about the dangers of Nazi Germany, so the use of his image is justified. The letters in "war" are bold and bigger than the rest of the type to stand out as the driven force behind the making of the image. I love the use of red against a white background, as well as including the complementary color green as the border, which really makes the hand print stand out and pop off the page. This design is very edgy and bold. I found this image in American Modernism: Graphic Design, 1920 to 1960 by R. Roger Remington.

Pointing the Finger

There's no question where this image is directing the viewer to. The huge red arrow at the top of the page points down towards the crowd below, and all of the soldiers' faces are painted over in red with white arrows leading us towards Hitler. The photo is in black and white, except for the inclusion of red, which creates an on-edge tension. Red can symbolize blood, fear, madness, death, among many other things. The main text is on the big red arrow, which takes up the perfect amount of space to create harmony between the text and the images. There's a red smeary mess trailing behind Hitler, which hints at the damage he is capable of. Since this was created in 1939 as a trade ad for Crowell Publishing Company, the exact idea of what Hitler was truly capable of and what he was already in the works of doing wasn't completely known. Lester Beall created this image in prediction of America's fear of the Nazis and Hitler, and what was going on in Europe. Knowing what we know now and how World War II turned out, it's a scary feeling to see the images American designers illustrated pre-war. I found this image in American Modernism: Graphic Design, 1920 to 1960 by R. Roger Remington.