Let's start with the graphic for the latest Harry Potter hopeful, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. The first thing I noticed is that it shares the lackluster style of the Elysium poster from last month. The cast here, of course, has nowhere near Matt Damon's profile, so they take up less space - though they are still the dominant part of the image, and are in the same image.
Note that the "city" from the subtitle is even smaller and less-detailed than the futuristic backdrop for Elyisum. Then we have the upper section of the far-left side, which depicts... I'm gonna guess that it's a demon or the film's bad guy.
I like the colors and whatnot, but the design is a bit lackluster. Now let's look at the poster that I found beside it, for the horror film You're Next.
And I don't know whether to call that boring or stupid or bold. For one thing, the visual elements are exclusively focused on the left side of the ad, leaving a lot of negative space on the right. The off-center image does draw the eye, of course - so we can look at a stupid animal mask.
And what animal is that supposed to be? It looks kind of like a pig - it made me think that they were ripping off the same from the first Saw film. But it also kind of resembles a dog with a short nose. Or maybe it's a bunny with small ears.
As you can tell, I was especially unimpressed with the poster for You're Next, but I'm quite glad that the pic has received some solid B-level reviews; there's not enough good, much less decent, horror out there these days.
Now, let's look at them as I first saw them - side-by-side:
See what I mean? They both have the big face on the left side, making them directly similar. And when seen next to each other, they reflect each other's visual sensibilities by drawing your eyes to the opposite ends - the far left of YN and the far right of tMI:CoB. It's a smart pairing.
I'm not a fan of whoever created these subway advertisements, for certain. But I am pretty much of the mind that the Transit employee who put these up has a strong interest in graphic design...
The thing that's really tragic about You're Next poster is that the movie has another much, much better poster:
ReplyDeletehttp://31.media.tumblr.com/fced6ce1df72325191deeb0c5029c9c1/tumblr_mr71shaQaQ1qa2zsbo1_500.jpg
I mean, the poster behind that link is one of the best I've seen in recent years--clever, descriptive, disturbing--and the tag line "Home is where the hunt is" is much better than "Did you remember to lock your door?" Sadly, it looks like someone thought that poster was too subtle for the film's target demo, and instead plastered this generic horror poster all along the subways. So sad.
Ooooh, damn, that other poster is so sweet! I know it's damn silly to say, but I think that poster settled it, and I will definitely do my damnedest to see this soon.
DeleteI've seen that other You're Next poster and it is pretty damn cool. I do agree that whoever set both of these subway posters up does have a good eye for arrangement there.
ReplyDeleteThank you, lady t! Yes, it's a fine pairing...
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