Many unanswered questions- Amnesty International

Amnesty International’s message is one of great importance and must be noticed and spread among the public. For that reason, they designed this very effective poster  that grabs the viewer’s attention. I think the most effective aspect of this poster is that the figure of the question mark grabs your attention and makes you examine the words as questions. This is exactly what the poster is trying to achieve, to make you examine these words as unanswered questions.

I think the use of sans serif font is very important. If a serif font was used the words would not be as readable. The combination of the bolding and different sized lettering makes the words appear strong and structured. The size changes give the question mark variety which also increases readability. The variety of sizes and baselines contributes to the way the viewer perceives the question mark; making it  look disconnected and enticing the reader to take a longer look and discover what this poster is really about.  The overlapping makes the question mark appear unstructured when looking closely. I believe that this was done to communicate that the definition of the words used do not provide structure or stability.

The fact that the poster is gray also makes the question mark pop off the page. If the page was colored I believe the bolded and overlapping words would not seem as significant. The gray shading of the background creates a dark atmosphere, creating the mood for the content of the poster. This poster uses white space very effectively to focus the viewer’s attention on the words, not only the figure of the question mark.

If I were to change anything about this poster I would make sure every word was readable. There are a few bolded words that are split into two lines and I believe the word could have easily been smaller or rotated vertically to fit the entire word in one line. It is also interesting that Amnesty International is not written anywhere on the poster. I would have written the organization or put a small logo in the bottom left corner so at the very end the reader would understand the context of the poster and perceive it in the way it was meant to be examined.

Overall, this poster definitely makes you stop and think.

I chose this poster made by the Brooklyn Arts Council promoting a dance program offering many styles of dance. I like this poster because I believe it effectively and cleverly shows off the different types of style by using several colors, typefaces, and sizes to show them all. By using the graphic shape of feet, I think it allows anyone who looks at it, imagine their feet dancing one of the dances advertised. It’s a fun way to effectively show dance classes. The title of the poster, “Folk Feet” works well with the text feet because of the different colors show the various styles and illustrates the idea of folk successfully.

I think the designer used white space nicely because the feet and the “Folk Feet” really stand out. Also because the heading is slanted at an angle, the ad feels more playful and has more rhythm that goes along with the colorful dancing feet. This ad makes me want to sign up for these dances classes anytime.

I just want to dance

When you first look at this poster, you know immediately that the dancing man is listening to an iPod. There is no question what is being advertised. The man is just a silhouette but he is not completely dark. There are some spots that are blue on the figure as well. I like that they chose not to let you see who the person posing is because then anyone could be this man. There were a series of these posters with a variety of figures so odds are people could find one to identify with. The figures were limited however to a certain age demographic. There are no gray beards or stiff old ladies with high collars on these posters. The fact that he is not a true silhouette makes it more apparent that he is dancing. He becomes more than just a two-dimensional shape.

The poster uses only three colors (except for the little bit of gray on the screen of the iPod, but that is barely noticeable). The white is emblematic of Apple and this generation of iPod. The brand name is in the top left in white, just to hammer home the name “iPod.” The words at the bottom give you the real information. How many songs does this contraption hold? Where can I store them? The black creates the silhouette. The blue attracts your attention. Other versions of this poster had different color backgrounds, but all were bright colors. The blue and black are good contrasts to the white writing, which goes over both colors.

Overall, this poster makes you realize how much fun you can have when you get to listen to your favorite music. While society may disagree, the world the man is in suggests that there is no shame in jamming out by yourself.

Nike and The Dubai Open

I always enjoy Nike posters and billboards because they always feature prominent athletes and have clever captions that I think are very motivating. This series of posters were approved and payed for by Nike to promote the Dubai Open, but they never ran because the players featured on them did not attend the tournament. I found these online and although they never ran, I think they are a good example of an effective poster. The three separate posters all use bright colors that would immediately catch my eye if I was walking by. The type is designed to look like the clothing worn by the tennis players and the colors of the text is coordinated to match what the color of the clothing would be. The event being advertised by the poster, The Dubai Open, is labeled on the bottom right corner, where the reader’s gaze would exit the poster. All in all I think the poster would have been a very effective campaign to promote the Dubai Open if the players featured had attended the tournament and the poster had ran.

Falling Letters

I think the typography in this poster is very effective.  The large sans serif block font draws your eye in because it is so bold.  The way the letters look like they are falling down the page makes the design very unique.  It leads your eye towards the smaller black sans serif font that is at the bottom left of the page.  The letters look as if they are blocks that a child would play with.

There is a good combination of white space and body text on this poster.  The way the letters are spaced in the first word and then overlapping in the following words really balances out the page. Also, the ‘N’ is bleeding off the page which adds to the cohesiveness of the page.

To improve the poster I would change the blue color at the bottom of the page to blend better with the rest of the design.  I think that this takes away from the poster because the colors contrast so much.

Picture Backgrounds

My favorite posters have always been those that use photographs as the background, and therefore centerpiece, of the poster.  I like that the poster reflects where the event will be located and I especially like the choice of picture.  The largest building in the center of the piece is left as is, pointing to the headline, and the smaller surrounding buildings are blurred into the background.  The clear open skyline makes a perfect place for the contrasting pink headline to be placed.  Overall I think that the poster is simple and artistic; it would make me look twice.

I picked this poster because of the simplicity of it. The large quotation marks work as the visual even though they are text. I believe if i was walking and saw this poster from afar I would be a little confused about the the random quotes on the blue background, and even the text toward the bottom – Don’t take these for granted. – would still confuse me so I would want to go up to the poster to check it out. The Sans Serif and the large use of white space (even though its blue) in this poster makes it very modern. I think this works for the poster because this is a very modern issue. I love the use of white in this subtext and the use of black in the quotes and smallest font. Again the use of just three colors: white, black, and blue adds the the simplistic feel of the poster.

I would make a few changes to this poster if I could. First I would increase the point size of both sets of text on the bottom, not by much, mainly in order to make the black text on the bottom line a bit more readable from a father distance, rather then right in front of the poster, and second I would also increase the white text just to keep its a significant point size larger then the bottom line text. Other then the question of the bottom line readability from farther away I find this poster to be very well designed.

Calling All Models!

 

I have seen this design recently around campus and it grabbed my attention. It is a poster design for the modeling tryout’s for the Caribbean Student Association. When looking at this design I first see the bright colors of green, red and yellow that express loudness and also represent very popular colors in the Caribbean.  I think that putting the organization and it’s logo on the top of the design was a good decision in this case because it tells the reader right away what the model call is for.  I also like the fact that the words “model call” are the largest and boldest fond drawing the attention to the main event.   I like how the yellow portion looks similar to a blow horn which is playing off the term model “call.” Lastly, I like how the red portion of the design acts as a runway for the woman on the poster as she walks toward the information about the event.

One thing that I would change in this poster is maybe making the words men and women wanted a little smaller on the poster or maybe taking it off and just putting open to all.  I also think they should take off your student fee at the bottom left corner because I’m not quite sure what it means and I think it may confuse the readers. Despite those changes I think this is a great design poster.

Joe Genco resume

500 Million Friends

I think the poster for the upcoming movie The Social Network is extremely effective. The image of lead actor Jesse Eisenberg appears to be taken by a web cam. His glazed over look leads viewers to speculate about his life and the plot of the movie. This image in combination with the what appears to be the Facebook toolbar running down the side make the poster look similar to a Facebook profile page.  I also like how the movie title and we site address are printed on this toolbar. This creative design displays the critical information but not in a way that would detract from the movie’s intriguing slogan, “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.”

In my opinion, the use of text is what makes the poster so effective. The slogan is much more interesting than the title of the movie and should be highlighted. The sans serif typeface in all capitals is modern looking and makes the viewer think of recent technology such as Facebook and other social networking sites. The white color also provides contrast and brings the slogan to front of the poster so that it is what catches the viewer’s eye and draws them in. It’s placement directly over the image and large size only serves to enhance the slogan effectiveness.

Overall, I think the poster is extremely effective in catching the viewer’s eye and conveying the important information of the movie. The only suggestion I would make to the designer would be to move the Facebook toolbar to the top of the poster to increase it’s similarity to an actual Facebook profile page.