Lunch with Type

My brother and I went to lunch downtown (which we rarely do) and I brought the camera to take pictures of all the interesting typography along the way. Here's what I found:

-KA

Inspiration

After looking at other inspiration posts, I've noticed others have artists that inspire them or particular styles. I'm not as immersed and familiar with the art and design world as I would like to be but I am making steps towards becoming so.

None the less I do have inspirations of course. Otherwise I would not be able to create. However they may be a little less organized or orthodoxed than expected of a design student.

I have a love for stylized and animated intros and credits to movies and shows. A few that inspire me are:

Casino Royale Intro http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnzgdBAKyJo&feature=fvwrel

Quantum of Solace Intro http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RudiraIFhU

Naruto Intro 5- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7j5kXZH61U

Samurai 7 ending- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQbQtVb9TJ8

Samurai Champloo Intro http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3aNq4h0grs

The Losers Credits http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SHoi5cK7-4

Men in Black Series Intro http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-CCeiMIQhc&feature=related

Teen Titans Intro http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWaWvQuIVMI&feature=fvwrel

Some Music Videos:

Crazy- Gnarls Barkley http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2B6SjMh_w&ob=av2e

Be By Myself- Asher Roth http://www.youtube.com/user/AsherRothVEVO#p/u/8/ka8ooi6DnO4

Go- Common http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCe1gC5VaW4

Bloom- Pogo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_htoSaQFf4

Now for some still artwork that inspires me. I follow some blogs that have inspiration posts. I tend to save those that interest me the most. Theses are a few of them combined with some comic book, anime and cartoon art:

-KA

Design Trends I've noticed

Thin Depth and Light Texture(Construction Paper Look)

Minimal Poster with Worn Out Texture

Full Bleed Words

-KA

My Improved Resume

I think this one is a little better and guides the eye better. Not as "exotic" as the previous.

-KA

My Resume

This is my first design resume. I would really love advice on it in both design and content. Please comment!

-KA

Self Portrait Made of Type

The assignment was presented to my class at the beginning of class. We had one class period(less than three hours) to create the piece. We had to take a picture with the camera on the computer in the lab for reference, then choose a typeface or a few and words that represent us and make a self portrait.

I chose Bauhaus for a number of reasons. I wanted to play with the my mixture of being silly and serious. Bauhaus to me is a typeface that can seem both serious and playful. Its also a geometric typeface(my favorite type) and the Bauhaus is very important in the design field...which obviously is my major and passion. My illustration is made completely from the letters in my name and the title.

As it developed it reminded me of a movie poster so I decided to make that what it is. Staring me in the feature "The Man Without The Plan"

 This the picture I used as reference:

-KA

007 Intros

These intros made me so excited. I really hope I can do a few stylized movie intros in my career. They will make for good reference for my flash animation.

-KA

This is what I do INSTEAD of HW

Found an old drawing of mine from yeeeears ago. I decided to bring it in and color it. I'm not finished, I intend on doing shades and shines and some effects for the powers. Probably will change the colors also. Might make a cool T-shirt or something. Hopefully the people behind the Power Puff Girls don't sue me!

-KA

Battle-bet sketches

These are the initial sketches. Still working on the "G". The "E" is the only one that is cropped. Not sure if I want to keep it like that or make it look like the stick was broken off or choose a different weapon. The "A" might change and the kind of flip knife the "L" is might change. I have the names of most of these weapons. None are made up. I intend on drawing them in detail and vectoring them. I really want to get into the details of these weapons. A lot of them have very cool patterns and details on them that could make them interesting. I intend on keeping it mostly grey scale. Might add some bronze and/or wood color. Please comment what you think!

-KA

Lens Flare Letters?

Lens flare typeface digital sketch? Good idea or will it become too repetitive too quickly?

-KA

One more good movie poster - Super 8!

The vertical composition is so cool to me. I love the contrast that leads to the gradient. I'm also a big fan of silhouettes. It really communicates the sci fi mystery of the movie. In the preview the camera that records the evidence falls to the side. I love how the poster relates to that but still maintains such a good composition.

-KA

Good and Bad Movie Key Art

I am a big movie fan. I'd call them my hobby more so than a pass time. So I decided I'd focus on movie key art or posters for my blog assignment. I have much more good examples than bad because I tend to remember the good ones. So I'll start with those I don't care for.

The Bad

 I'm not a fan of this for a few reasons. The only implication to any part of the plot of the movie communicated is the dessert. That's only location. The photography doesn't look like they match each other. Probably different lighting. The airbrushing is excessive and the concept of the poster solely rests on the fact that this is a sequel in the dessert. Hence the big overpowering "2".

This poster is liked by a lot of  people and it does capture attention. However I don't think it communicates the movie very well visually. The movie is less dark than this poster implies and the change in font size every line is a little distracting. I like that they have the title as the facebook bar but its too small. Takes too much work to find out what this movie is which is the main purpose of the piece.

I have yet to see this movie but I have seen the cartoon and I think this poster attempted to emphasize how much the smurfs don't fit in the real world but all I see are backsides and the smurfs being crushed. It seems a little too explicit even though its done in a cartoon manner. Also the big gradiented 3d text title is way over done in 3d animated movies. It worked at first with Shrek but after it was repeated so many times it seems like an expired trend. Lastly some of the people in the train are not directly looking at the smurfs.

Once again a bad use of minimalism. This interpretation of the tooth fairy is unknown and thus when it is put to stand by itself I think instead of inspiring interest, it inspires confusion as what this movie is about or what kind of movie it is. Also the movie title is rather mundane. The purpose of design is to communicate. This poster lacks a lot of information it needs to properly advertise this movie.

The Good

My favorite part of this poster is the composition of how the characters are laid out. It reminds me of old film posters that emphasized the pinacle look in order to communicate how grand the story is. The upward movement of the action and characters eyes and the way the star of the poster, Ironman looks at the viewer makes this movie seem like it is really going to be an epic story staring a hero.

I think this poster has interesting perspective, stays true to the poster of Ocean's 11 and communicates the personality of the movie through showing many stylish characters that are about business. Only 3 colors used. Simple, interesting and effective. The title of the movie isn't even necessary because most people get it from the image and tagline. That's fantastic.

I'm sure it is a challenge to do a third poster for such a huge and well known franchise but still make it interesting. This poster does not rely on a huge "3" to market the third movie in the series. I think it makes great use of the iconic code pattern but adds the use of light to make it different from the previous two. The code engulfs the character almost as though it is a rough wind which is a good visual metaphor for the content of the movie. It makes use of the dark costumes in the movie to create that interesting gradient and stays true to the franchises custom typeface. The second movie poster made the characters look clean. This one shows Neo as though he has been through some things. Great way to elude to an ending of a continuous story rather than a brand new story.

 The illustration really catches me in this piece. This is probably more personal preference than anything else. I love a variety of bright colors on white. I'm also a water color fan. The fact that the water color drips like tears is a great parallel. The colors eluding to "colored" people is interesting. The eyes are well done, very feminine and beautiful and the whole thing looks like a butterfly, also pushing the feminine focus of this movie. 

This is just one of a series of good posters for this movie. The buildings texture that the entire campaign uses is very interesting and makes a lot of sense once one sees the movie. I really enjoy how the photo and buildings are interacting in this series of posters. Lastly all the type is very readable on that very busy background. That is not easy to do, especially since the background also includes white.

I remember this poster from when I was a kid. The poses they put the various cartoon characters in were different from how they had been depicted in the past. That combined with the black white and red really made me want to know what this movie was and what the toons will be doing. I remember drawing this poster when I was very young. That is how much this poster caught my attention.

This is finally a successfully minimal poster for an animated movie. All of the characters have so much personality in those poses that it makes me really want to get in there and see what they are up to. That really balances well with the two tone flat color composition.

-KA