Film Cover Analysis

What messages, meaning or emotions are the designers communicating through the choice and style of typography?

 

The poster has the Iranian flag on it and the movie is based on the difficult relationship between Iran and USA. The story is on spying; about an American hostage who shouldn’t have been in Iran in the first place.

The Iranian flag is covering Ben Affleck’s eyes which suggests a mystery, relates to spying and how he does not want to reveal his true identity. The typography of the title of the movie is big and bold. The caption “The movie was fake. The mission was real” is a strong caption which could suggest that the movie is based on a true story. The black and white colours which are the main colours of the poster could represent a ‘WANTED’ poster.

The first thing that caught my attention were the shredded strips of paper which could indicate a secret or hidden evidence that is about to be uncovered. The reason it could have been shredded in the first place implies that someone was trying to hide something. Also, it could suggest shredded documents or confidential documents. On the contrary, it could suggest a story that needs to be put together. In addition, there is one strip of paper missing as seen on the poster which also suggests hidden truth or a missing piece to the puzzle. It could also suggest that the truth is beneath all these pieces of cut up paper.

Furthermore, the bottom of the poster is in red because ‘The Town’ was a successful movie. Hence, this is suggesting the same outcome for this movie. Emphasis is added through the use of a bold colour and using a good successful director which promotes the movie. Also, red on a black background draws immediate attention to the eye. 

Michael Roberts

Michael Roberts was born in 1948 and is a British Fashion Journalist, Illustrator and Photographer. He studied Graphic Design and Fine Art before moving into fashion and he now lives in New York City, USA. And is the fashion and style director of Vanity Fair Magazine. He has already worked as a fashion director in many other magazines such as the New Yorker and the British Vogue. Also, he has made several illustrations for many Vogue magazines and additionally, he has books published of photography and illustrations.

 Robert’s illustrations are created using coloured paper/card and put together to create a collage. This generally illustrates the African culture and influences. With his choice of warm yet bold colours, grass, leaves and animal patterns, he makes references to the African landscape. He does not use too much detail, simply basic shapes to give the models, clothes and accessories a good structure and form. He also includes some 3D effect, such as the grass coming forward or the handbag larger than the model supposedly carrying it. This is to create the illusion that the work is not completely flat even though all he has used is coloured paper/card.

Julie Verhoeven

Julie Verhoeven is a London based Artist, Designer, Illustrator and Creative Director. She was born in Kent, England in 1969 and studied at Central St. Martins Fashion College in London. Verhoeven is most famous for her fashion illustrations; however she also produces sculptures and paintings. Initially, she started out as an assistant to John Galliano and later on designed for major designers such as Mulberry, Louis Vuitton and Versace. Also, her work has been exhibited at the Hayward Gallery and Rifle maker.

The very first thing that I noticed about Verhoeven’s work was that her work is incredibly abstract in the sense that she mainly uses a lot of her imagery, which in my opinion creates almost characters of a story. She selects sections that she will give more attention to detail to than other sections. For example, in the image above, the face and the accessories (such as the belt) has a lot more detail involved whereas the rest is left blank with a thin outline. She also adds a few extra elements to give it that very edgy, imaginative, abstract look to it, such as the fire, the circles, the umbrella and the water. I would say Verhoeven is one of my favourite artists of all time as she doesn’t go for a ‘perfect’ look, making her work different, unique and immediately eye catching.

Invention of the Printing Press & Moveable Type

In the mid-15^th Century, the German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg invented the Printing Press and the Moveable Type in Mainz, Germany. The Printing Press was invented with modifications, and increased mechanisation continued to remain the principal means of printing until the late 20^th century. This invention also started a revolution in freedom of speech. In addition, it enhanced the democratisation of knowledge, destabilised the power of political and religious establishments, improved education, and placed the foundation for the modern knowledge-based economy.

Gutenburg had several methods of printing from moveable type, including oil based inks, special press and  metal molds allowed for the mass production of printed books for the first time. A Printing Press is a machine that transfers lettering or images with the use of different forms of inked surfaces onto paper or similar material fed into it; it is used for printing many copies of a text onto paper.

The world’s first known moveable type system for printing was created in China around 1040. Moveable type is a system of printing and typography that uses moveable components to reproduce the elements of a document. The pieces of this device are designed and then cut out into metal pieces to be used in the printing press machine. In this way, the printing text could have designed letters (typefaces). 

History and Development of Western Alphabet

The original alphabet was developed by the Semitic people living in or near Egypt. They based it on the idea developed by the Egyptians, but used their own specific symbols.  It was quickly adopted by their neighbours and relatives to the east and north, the Canaanites, the Hebrews, and the Phoenicians.  The Phoenicians spread their alphabet to other people of the Near East and Asia Minor, as well as to the Arabs, the Greeks, and the Etruscans, and as far west as present day Spain.

The Sumerians introduced experimenting with writing over 4000 years B. C which is known as Cuneiform. The early cuneiform compromised some 1,500 pictograms. For example, the word for bird existed at first as a simple symbol representation of a bird. The oldest pictograph on a limestone table has been dated at around 3500 years B.C.

The Egyptians developed a system of pictograms. Hieroglyphic inscriptions (sacred carvings) began as pictograms, but later those pictures were used to represent speech sounds. 

Phoenician Alphabet Origin

Egyption Alphabet Origin

Agnes Decourchelle

Artist’s Career

Agnes Decourchelle is a French free-lance illustrator. She graduated from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 2001, and the Royal College of Art in London in 2003. She decided to become a Free Lance Illustrator in 2002 as well as a drawing teacher in 2010. Also, she has worked for magazines and trends publicity such as Marks & Spencer. Decourchelle mainly creates illustrations of people by using different colours in different tones (not black) which give her illustrations a soft and warm atmosphere to it.

Links With Own Work

For my Fashion Illustration project I have studied Agnes Decourchelle and have done similar illustrations that use the same style as her work. Her work is directly drawn with watercolours or colour pencils without any prior drawings. The colours in her illustrations are blended together using a dégradé effect. I like her work because it’s diverse and increases your originality of colour experimenting.

 

In my opinion, this illustration portrays a family gathering due to the expressions on their faces as well as the majority of the warm use of colours as well as the specifically chosen warm colours blended well together using watercolours. As well as that, this illustration does have a combination of warm and cold colours with only a small sector of the illustration (the drinks) being cold colours to depict the season of Summer. Through observation, I can infer that Decourchelle’s work is really detailed, sketchy and bright and well put together by blending the colours. 

 

 I like this image due to its simplicity of the face of a lady; just by adding a few warm tones on her face makes the image very eye catching. I believe here she has used colour pencils as the consistencies of the colours are thicker than the water colour illustration on the left.  She has used a variety of shades, and highlights certain areas (especially the right) to draw attention to the features of the face Half of the illustration involves warm colours and the other half uses cold colours depending on the reflection of light.

I like Agnes Decourchelle’s work because she has the ability to make even the simplest aspect of an environment become very eye catching by just using water colours or colour pencils; also, she directly sketches out the illustration and produces a detailed yet sketchy looking illustration. This is what instantly attracted me to her work.