- Look at/think about scale--The rat and hat both appear much larger than the lighthouse (I imagine this is something you've thought about?), and the type inside the rat appears much smaller than the type inside the lighthouse and the hat, both of which appear pixellated, as well. For me, the size of type in the rat makes it the most successful image of the three because you get more detail from the outline. With smaller text size, you'll probably get those windows to show up better in the lighthouse. I agree with Monique about the hat--the GONY one seems it should be taller.
- The text at the bottom--Do change the text at the bottom--remember that these are posters for the series presenting the director's work, not for the films themselves, and the info we need to have is on the assignment sheet.
- The titles typeface--While I understand the appeal of a grunge typeface for Scorsese films in general, I have to ask: how does it add to your concept about Scorsese as a director? Does it add to the concept about characters who are not who they seem to be? Is the grunge typeface distracting from the concept of the images?
- Color scheme--is black and white the best color scheme to address your concept? Black and white suggests an either/or situation to me, and it seems like most of these characters are actually both. What if you work in shades of gray? Or use the black background with gray type? I realize that would bring down the contrast, but perhaps that would be interesting because the viewer would have to be closer to see the words inside the images?
- Titles--I'm okay with the type for the movie titles being smaller since the focus for the poster series is on the director instead of the movies themselves. That being said, I suggest you work on the alignment between the title and the theater/time/date information. Since the titles are in all caps, it seems like the height should match the two lines of text next to them. So maybe make the titles a bit larger so the cap height meets the cap height of "Charles Theatre."
- I love the illustrations, but Peewee really stands out the most, then Edward, who is weird-enough looking and has enough emotion in his face to connect with, but Lydia draws the eye less. It's partly that Peewee's skin tone is warmer, and partly based on positioning. Both Edward and Peewee take up more visual space than Lydia, and their bodies are in more dynamic positions. I realize it's a bit late in the game, and that the arms crossed seems very Lydia, but is there another position she could be in to make her stand out more? Alternately, perhaps making her smaller and the other Beetlejuice characters larger would help reinforce your concept, especially since those background characters are weirder than she is, and weirder than the outsiders in the other posters. Maybe being smaller and less weird makes her the outsider visually and helps draw attention to her more?
- Director's name--I can't decide about the director's name across the posters. I partly really like it, and like the typeface for Burton, and wonder if it could be even more fanciful to match the illustrations? On the other hand, I partly understand where Carolyn is coming from in whether it is confusing. I do think that if you're going to do it, go all out, so maybe make it even bigger and running off the pages even more? I think these are recognizable enough that people who know Tim Burton well and would go to a retrospective of his work would recognize what's going on, especially if you're imagining them posted side by side. I agree with Monique that the spacing around Tim is a bit problematic.
- I agree with Kim about the first, more simplified explosion--it appeals to me more. I thought the shadow/white look on the Armageddon image works better than the others. Have you tried making all of the city buildings the darker shadow and the sky the white in the other posters? Or is there a reason that that one is flipped?
- What if the interior of the explosion were larger so you can see the skylines in more detail? I just wonder if the differences will be noticeable at this size. Could you even push the explosion so it extends off the page in some places?
- The text at the bottom--Is there a reason that you're giving all of the production information on the individual films? Remember that these are posters for a series that recognizes Michael Bay, not for the individual movies themselves. Would that be clearer if you made the director's name larger? They also need the location and date/time. The text we have to have is on the syllabus/assignment sheet we got that first class.
- Scale--I remember that our group talked about zooming in more and showing the women in a more dynamic layout than just centering them. If you're struggling with the details of the illustrations, that may be a way to work around that; maybe focus on their legs since these are musicals with big dance numbers? For example, what if you placed the girl from Band Wagon off the right side of the page so that all we see is her leg sticking out of the dress and her arm with the glove and bracelet? The woman from An American in Paris could also just be her dancing legs, or her torso up with the focus on the jaunty hat and her arm?
- The black outlines/bars: how are these helping your concept? Does the use of a frame, especially one that is such a solid black, say something about your director? The reversed type for the titles separate them from the director's name--what does that separation say about your director or add to your concept? I appreciate the details of the feet breaking the box, but I wonder if that shouldn't happen more? Maybe the V or the M in the director's name should cross over into the title area? The heavy boxes just don't allow for as much movement or joy as would be associated with a musical director, at least for me. If you do keep them black background for the titles, should they all be the same size even if the title doesn't take up the entire strip?
- Take a close look at the director's name and the titles in this typeface--are there some letter combinations that need to be modified individually, like the Mi in Minnelli? Perhaps check the alternate glyphs in the typeface to see if there are versions of the letters that might combine more effectively?
Carolyn: I haven't seen the movie, but I'll try to address your questions as best I can:
- If you want the image to suggest floating, perhaps the legs of the outline are a bit misleading. The image looks like the character is walking away to me. Is the character always in this position when it/he/she is floating? Are there other leg positions you could use that might look more like floating/flying/whatever it is the character does?
- You wrote that the image inside the outline shows a girl approaching a new place. This may not be an issue because presumably people who've seen the movies might recognize this better, but I am having trouble seeing the image of the girl(s). I see a hat with a ribbon (?) in the bottom, so this is the girl? I think that I see a dome (?) with a face/monster in the character's back, which is cool looking, but is there a placement of the image that will show the girl better, or maybe the scale of the image could be smaller so that more detail can be fit into the outline?
- I'm not so concerned about the image looking like it floats because it seems a bit whimsical and that probably fits for Miyazaki, right? But the text at the bottom does appear to be floating to me. Should it be closer to the bottom of the poster? And is the size of the AFI logo a bit distracting? It's red and the text next to it is so light that the logo competes with the illustration for me.
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