Reflective Statement

The brief, “Movie You”, was to design a movie poster of a genre of your choice, a VIP ticket and a ticket wallet/holder. My chosen genre was crime/drama, which I found easier than other movie genres. During the process of designing my poster I have found a variety of different poster designs for my chosen movie genre which helped me provide a clear strategy, what I found with these posters, it displays primary characters portrayed as good or evil, they make them stand out more and minimal text.

I knew exactly what I wanted to do, the way I am positioned in the poster, how the text is laid out and the use of colour. I did this by sketching a few poster concepts, making sure it is suitable for my genre; I also chose a title for my movie which was hunted.

Hunted is about a highly trained hit man who decides to leave his dirty business and hide away, his own crime syndicate, the Los Zetas does not approve of this, One rule every gang is familiar with, once you leave you are put in a body bag Unfortunately this does not happen, instead of him getting smoked, it is repaid to his crime syndicate but that’s not all, he is also hunted by the secret service which leads to an all-out war between the three.  Being able to get help from some of his associates from the Los Zetas, trapped in a game of cat and mouse, the only way to endure is too keep running until you know your time is up.

For my movie title, I sketched a few concepts and added elements that related to my movie, elements such as broken glass, shattered effect, bullets, target and guns were merged together within the title. From the concepts that I have sketched I chose the ones that I liked and did it on illustrator. After looking at these concepts, I felt that the movie title is better off itself without the use of the elements even if I was to go serious it wouldn’t fit in with my poster and because my background will be white, it will look messy, since my movie is serious I just left it as a red colour and broken glass within it.

The main idea for my poster was to make it simple but effective but most of all, it is serious, and the main focus was to make myself standout out from the rest of the elements of a movie poster. Costume played an important part for this poster so I wanted to be creative and dressed in a way that shows the idea of a crime/drama movie. I had no difficulty photographing myself as I knew how I wanted to be positioned in front of the camera and the use of facial expression, from all the test shots that were taken I chose the best ones and created 4 concepts, experimenting how the elements are placed, after looking at these four concepts I made a finalised poster. I also tried to give meaning to my poster, the use of shattered glass to show that the character is broken loose, the smoke to symbolise relief, at some point where the character is in a situation where he is not being chased down.

For my wallet, it wasn’t hard for me to get ideas; with less research the wallet was designed to relate to the movie poster but most importantly the main character. The main character is smoking in the poster so I decided to make a smoking pack as a wallet; I also looked at a few interests that can relate to a character that is represented as a bad person such as pool, casinos, clubs etc. I had to design components of these interests as the images on the web was distorting. I finalised my wallet by combing these interests as a whole for my wallet. This also went with my ticket design which was easy; I looked at the idea of a money clip with the description on the strap around the money.

Overall when I look back at this project I happy with what I did for my poster, ticket and wallet but still could have done better if I had dedicated even more time, if I was to do this project again, I would definitely work on trying to put all the ideas from my head onto a journal because I had A LOT of ideas but just didn’t let it out. 

Logo Evolution

In my logo evolution report, I have chosen two logo’s that is considered successful and one, I deem unsuccessful.

My first logo that has been successful is the PlayStation Logo

PlayStation is one of the largest and most successful manufacturers of video game consoles and company in the world. PlayStation was established in Japan during 1994. During that year, Manabu Sakamoto who is the designer for PlayStation created many logos to the company.

As we look at the collection of these PlayStation logos, it is evident that they have experimented with different elements until it got to a point where it didn’t need to be transformed, but to be clarified and refined. The current logo for PlayStation is represented greatly as it includes the 4  colours of the brand that symbolize joy, passion and excellence, it also gives off that modern day appearance, the PlayStation logo features a custom typeface also designed by Sakamoto specifically for the company. They have also developed secondary logos for the different consoles (PS1. PS2, PS3 etc.)  But the final logo (pictured below) still remains the primary logo but has been slightly refined.

PlayStation has been so constant and have shown a level of consistency in the brand's identity which is really important to the community's link with the logo and the brand. When the community see the logo, without a doubt they will have no trouble what that logo represents.

My second logo that has been unsuccessful is the Sherwin Williams logo, I find this logo unsuccessful, not just the logo but how it is portrayed. From my personal view I feel that they used the wrong colour and their slogan. I don’t like how the red paint is spilt over the earth; it also represents the colour of blood which also represents violence. It’s like they want violence to occur in this world.

Also looking at their logo there is a lack of consistency, the first logo was introduced in 1906 and has had some evolution inside the same concept of the paint covering the world, just the colours being changed.

If companies were to change their logo, they should stick to making small changes but not too much because if they were to change it significantly it will not be the best idea  as it can confuse the consumer and take away from the brands overall identity.

When we compare the PlayStation logo and the Sherwin Williams Company it is evident to see which one is successful and unsuccessful, one company doing a lot of brainstorming and experimenting with different concepts leading up to a final while the other company sticks to the same image and idea and only changing the way it looks such as the colour.

PlayStation sticks to the same logo, still being successful because of the minimal changes they have done and still in use to this day while the Sherwin Williams Company still uses the same concept, just the change of colours and appearing to be messy portraying a bad image. 

Analyse and compare

Bob Peak revolutionised advertising in the film industry and is considered the “Father of the modern movie poster.”  

Bob Peak was a master draftsman with a brilliant sense of colour, texture, design and style that transformed 60’s print campaigns with bold colour schemes that still inspires and finds influence today. For movie advertising, he rendered wildly innovative illustrations from mere film still collages and head shots.

Bob Peak is represented in numerous permanent collections, including those of American Express, Playboy, Philip Morris, 20 Century Fox, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Sports Illustrated, Clint Eastwood, Sidney Poitier, and others.

Here are a few examples of his work.

When we examine the artwork of Bob Peak, some of his works include an expressive, abstract or clean appearance, collage, cartoon and comic art. Peak’s methods were as varied as his graphic approach, utilising, oil, acrylic, charcoal and mixtures of them. He chose colours, textures and design approaches that he felt appropriate for the subject.

There are similarities between Bob Peak and Frank Frazetta. Frank Frazetta is one of the world’s best known fantasy artists, inspiring generations with his remarkable paintings. His works cover many themes, from classic horror monsters to fantasy battles and heroes.

When we examine both Bob Peak and Frank Frazetta’s work, they have a few things in common, the image of the sun, the placement of the images and the use of different media. Both being in the same era I believe they shared the same idea, the difference is that Frank Frazetta’s work is more focused on an image of a person, not being expressive and abstract whereas Bob peaks work is more abstract and expressive with the use of different colours.

 With the posters that are being design today, it is possible that the designers who created the posters above were influenced by the works of bob peak and chose his type of style, not just that but looking at all the posters today, it seems as if they all have that bob peak style. Looking at the posters as a whole it successfully conveys the ideas to the viewer and also sticks to bob peaks film making art.