Some brief style movie posters posted by Chunyan Yu

 

 

 These are three simple style movie posters. They use the simple shapes and colors to design the posters in order to convey the contents of the movies. Because of the simple expression, sometimes you need to guess and imagine the meaning of the posters. It is the interesting point of that kind of movie posters design.

The Polish movie poster

       Poland has a rich tradition of poster design since 19^th century. The Polish Poster School was famous for its painterly gesture, surrealism form, and simple use of colors. Artists were influnced by Russian Constructivism, French Surrealism, and the photomontage techniques.

       During the post World War II period the Polish Government financially supported the filmmaking and propaganda. The fall of Communism in 1989 led to the end of the polish film industry. In ‘70sThe polish poster style became more painterly and symbolic. Artists preferred to use a single images to illustrate and symbolize the whole film story.

by Ai

The Postmodern Design –The Innovative Style of Poster Design after 1960s (Part 2)

The major art movements and prevalent graphic design style in Western Country produced dominant effect in changes of poster design style in 20th century. The significant change of poster design style in 20th century was between the International Typographic style which continue the order of the modernist tradition and the Postmodern Design which was represented by a Swiss designer Wolfgang Weingart.

With the advent of information age, The global collaboration and international communication was quite intense during the post-World War II era. The cooperation relationship between hundred different countries made the global village possible. Demand for international identification and communicative clarity kept rising, especially the needs of a unified pictographs , and a international standard of visual communication . For the certain points the International Typographic style became a wide utilization of graphic design field by the 1950s. The clarity and legibility of this new style allowed people form the world to accept the same visual information. The style was flashed around the world after World War II. It remained its major force at the end of the 20^th century. The origin of the International Typographic style was found in the curriculum at the School of Design in Basel. The principle and foundation of their courses was based on the De Stijl and the Bauhaus. De Stijl (literally “The Style” in Dutch) which was a journal in 1917 played a key role of constructivism movement. It claimed a constructive idea of graphic design with simplified elements and geometric harmony. Basic designs were reduced to straight lines, right angles and the primary colours: yellow, red and blue. A design might only consist of straight and horizontal lines because, immediately and directly, they revealed its very essence.[1]

           As a leading representative of the international typographic style, Josef Muller-Brockman established a objective and mathematical design vocabulary. His clear use of graphic elements and mathematical structure presents legible and functional information. In his poster design, the precise use of constructivism idea created a harmonious graphic arrangement. The law of constructive poster is the structural harmony. The most important concern of constructivism is Arrangement, beauty and function.The essential working process of Muller-Brockmann’s poster design is that he kept exploring the possibilities of mathematically constructed grid and geometric forms. In the Musica Viva poster series, it present a intelligent use of geometric forms and primary color. He constructed a abstract express and absolute order. Thus, blocks of interesting forms meld to produce bursts of “color-sound” corresponding to Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite (October 1958); varying tones of red combine with black rectangles to distinguish the work of Erich Schmid (January 1959); or seven squares of elemental colors appear to “communicate” with one another, expressing the shared themes of Hauer, Speth, and Stockhausen (Nov. 1959).[2] His “Der Film” poster presents a international style by using mathematical grid system and bold typeface. The visual impact of this work was increased by controlling typographic elements. Muller-Brockmann achieved a effective result of visual communication.

By the 1970s The cultural climate in western countries changed rapidly. The authority and tradition of previous modernism was questioned. The developing trend of human society became more informative and pluralistic. The demand for equality of women and minorities was raised. Western culture was notably characterized by diversity. Went through the economic and culture changes of this era people firmly believed the modern aesthetic was outdated. The coming postindustrial society need a new meaningful term and progressive attitude . postmodernism became a wide utilization by different field to describe the cultural change of the period. Personal attitude and values were involved into design field. The design forms also carried political and social attitudes. Many designer emerged with postmodernism idea during the 1970s.The intuitive and playful aspects of postmodern design reflects personal involvement. Postmodern designers place a form in space because it “feels” right rather than to fulfill a rational communicative need. [3]

Opposite to International Typographic style of the modernist tradition the Postmodern Design style was pioneered by the Swiss Designer Wolfgang Weingart who Rejected modernism notion and principle.

Weingart fulfilled a playful and expressive design principle. With his achievement in film system Weingart transferred the typesetting process from metal to photographic systems. It allowed him to change the type size and letterspacing freely. He overlapped photos fragments and typographic information by using layering of images and type techniques. Most of Weingart’s posters have an irregular border. individual images, type and textures are placed in the harmonistic composition. the collage pictures with halftone dot screens shows the photomechanical process. Weingart measured the printed result by Layering transparent films during the first stage of collage design until it's overprinting through the letterpress.

            After he photographed the physical type the design process will be unrestricted. With reproduction camera he could be able to change the size, weight of elements. By Changing the quality of the photos Weingart could make the type looks blur or fatter. He further use the halftone screens to adjust the tone or gradation of the images.combining pictures of train tickets , family photos and framgent of text. Weingart created a montage with photographic images and abstract form. His posters also presented the dreams surrounded by The fragmentes of memories. The way I worked and the action of my scissor mirrored an inner reality: uninhibited, playful, complex, contradictory, and somewhat erratic- in short, quick snips.[4]

Compare to the Postmodern Design the absolute order and clarity of International Typographic style was completely refined and somehow reached it’s possibility. It is not surprising that the backlash of Postmodern Design emerged in the 1970s. Personal expression is the essential value of postmodern design. Designers involved their personal attitude into design form. The posters were no long only created for important activity. Posters also presented playful and expressive aspects of artists.

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1.      Müller-Brockmann, Josef, history of the poster (London ; New York : Phaidon Press, 2004.),157

2.      Purcell, Kerry William, Josef Müller-Brockmann / by Kerry William Purcell (New York : Phaidon Press, c2006), 173

3.      Meggs, Philip B, Meggs' history of graphic design (Hoboken, N.J. : J. Wiley & Sons, c2006), 466

4.      Weingart, Wolfgang, Typography / Wolfgang Weingart (Baden, Switzerland : Lars Müller ; New York, NY : Distribution USA and Canada, Princeton Architectural Press, c2000), 355
by Ai

1st Scholarly Blog Post: The Most Coolest Graphic Designer in Postmodernism

      Clarity and readability are unique styles for poster design. Barbara Kruger is a feminist graphic designer in Postmodernism movement, and she is also an American conceptual artist. Kruger stands out among the American conceptual artists due to her unique style. Her works are clear to read, and she uses the direct method to communicate the messages with the viewers. Her design style is influenced by Minimalist graphic design. In addition, she rarely uses conventional elements in her works and she avoids using common methods to explain and communicate the subject. Audience can easily recognize her designs because she uses black and white images in the background, Futura Bold type or Helevitica Ultra Condensed type and the red, white and black shapes behind the text. The red, white, and white colors juxtapose with the black and white image are really eye-catching to the viewers. The audience can clearly see the ironic texts, controversial images, and deliberate compositions

      First, text is a very important element that conveys messages in poster designs. The text in her poster design usually has the meaning of seditions and provokes conventional concepts. Kruger likes to use concise and ironic text to express her idea.  The most common approach in her posters is the use of pronounces, such as "you", "I", "we", and “they’’. Moreover, her texts and subjects often include both tangible and fictitious connotation and she also likes to adopt various violent and impactful languages, such as the texts in her poster, “We have received order not to move”, “You kill time” and “Your body is a battleground” in her posters. Although her posters are clear to understand by audience, the author, Steven Heller, says, “she is still trying to stimulate every audience’s curiosity and imagination between the text and images. She wants her works to interact with each audience and let the audience develop his and her own interpretation.“[1]Posters are a medium that conveys information but they rely on designers to speak to audience.

                   

            The most frequently used typefaces in Kruger’s posters Futura Bold type and Helevitica Ultra Condensed, which are modern and clear. Also, they are both Sans-serif type and enhance clarity in texts. Her works primarily made in Postmodernism movement therefore the typeface has a more modern style in that period. In addition, she usually uses concise texts, so the san-serif type is definitely suitable for the text to catch the viewer’s attention. Meanwhile, the red, white and black typeface collocate with the shape of color, and can quickly to catch the viewer’s focal point. Take her poster, “You kill time”, as an example. If she had used the light typeface or traditional typeface it would have missed the focal point in the image, and the contents would not have explicitly conveyed the message to the viewers. Therefore, the way she used the typeface in the Postmodernism makes her works more unique.  

      Second, images help audiences better realize contents in posters. Kruger has explored various issues, from politics, society, religion, gender, race, to feminists’ opinions, consumption, and the greed of large cooperation. That is why she chose dramatic and controversial images. For example, her famous work, “I shop therefore I am”(1987), used the montage style. Not only did it bring her fame but also became a popular slogan in the society. She successfully used the interplay between pictures and texts, and adeptly used fables in the images. In addition, she worked on commercial posters, which required consumer’s psychology and social implications. For example, the texts in her poster, “I shop therefore I am”(1987) had an image of a hand. It could be interpreted as that consumers should not let go of the product in their hands. Furthermore, she likes to choose the image to mock consumerism. The images are always shown in black and white, which emphasizes the subjects and avoids interfering the text in poster.

 

      Third, the author, Harry Abram, says, “Kruger’s works usually build on the consistency and surprise. Her posters not just come up with the texts and images, the professional compositions.”[2] In her basic structural design, she tries to design various compositions. Although their layouts may seem very similar, they still have different structures and organizations. For example, the texts in her poster, “When I hear the word culture I take out my checkbook”(1985), were placed in oblique, and it made the unity with the subject. On the other hand, the texts in her poster, “You will kill time”(1983), were placed in center, the negative space enhanced stability in the composition. She adequately juxtaposes the text and the image in her poster, and clearly conveys the message to the viewers.

      In conclusion, Barbra Kruger is a graphic designer although she also has design on other media, such as magazine, package, and installation art. She hopes her works are not restricted in graphic design. She is not only a graphic designer but also an artist. Some people wonder why her works are still popular in society. Magers, a writer, says “Kruger has a lot of experiences with popular culture experiences from the 80s, and she is still active in popular designs such as magazine covers. At the same time, Kruger continues to absorb current popular cultures from the TV. “[3]

Thus, the combination of rich experiences and new information explains why her designs are still famous.

by Mei-Chun Lin

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1.Kruger, Barbara, and Rosalyn Deutsche. Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. New York city, 1999

2.Abrams, Harry N. Love for Sale. New York, 1990.

 3.Magers, Sprüth. “Barbara Kruger: Slogans That Shake Society” (May 9, 2011).

Barbara Kruger's different designs

This time I post her different designs.

These are the design she used the red frame around the image.

It is different element from her other works. 

Although, she used the red frame, she still contains her basic elements in the poster.  

by Lin

The two movie posters from eastern and western countries posted by Chunyan Yu

My topic of scholarly post is about Movie poster design under different culture background. The first one is the movie poster of Metropolis and the second one is the movie poster of Geisha. You can easily tell the different feeling of these two posters in different styles of design.