Houston, Are You On Target?
Most art sends a visual message to the viewer, but what about when the message is not easily received, if at all? The phrase, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" comes to mind. Although there are no rules in art, it doesn't mean that all products are equally successful in hitting their target.
The ones that are the most interesting would be the teaser poster for the movie The Dark Knight and Star Trek: Into Darkness, and the cover for U2's album War.
-The Dark Knight: The focus is on the Joker, which tells us that the he is going to play a major role in this film. Focus is played within this poster to obscure the Joker so we can also infer that the character is mysterious. The “WHY SO SERIOUS?” blood smear is sharp and in focus, contrasts against the cool-toned and muted colors. The symbolism from the smeared smile over the Joker's blurred visage tells of insanity, yet it's easy to miss the broken Dark Knight bat logo at the bottom. The logo indicates that Batman is breaking; like the Joker, he is dark and mysterious and lives in the shadow of his past. “The Dark Knight” text is regal, yet encompassing and subtly sharp. Still, the Joker is larger than the bat logo and over the logo and text, evident that the Joker is in the spotlight, and more powerful than Batman? Makes you want to watch this movie.
-Star Trek: Into Darkness: This appears to be more minimalistic to limit what knowledge the audience will get about the film. The only obvious information given out is the main title and the release date. The rip in some sort of building or structure creates negative space, you could make out the shape of the Star Trek Logo forming in the opening. This now gives a metaphorical thought that Star Trek is being ripped apart in some form. The damage also seems to evolve around the only character in the middle whom is standing on top of the rubble, leading to believe that he is the source of the destruction. Through the opening, there is a city in the distance in the background, suggesting that whatever had happened from the audience's point of view will carry through to this city, or more metaphorically, the rest of the world. The way the poster is mostly dark and the cool-toned colors give a somber atmosphere shows that there are dark times ahead.
-U2 War: The most striking thing about the cover is not its complexity...but its simplicity. The album cover contains the picture of a child in black and white, it is not very busy, but it allows the viewer to be drawn into a deeper level. The black and white image shows the simplicity of war, it may seem complicated whilst it is occurring, but U2 may try to state this by showing that war is 'Black and White'. In contrast to the monochromatic background, the title is printed in a bright red. The color red has a lot of connotations, but the ones that stand out in this case are the relation to blood and anger. The child on the front cover takes up the majority of the frame, who is in a submissive pose with his hands above his head. This may show that he has been captured and is a prisoner. The image of an angry/submissive child is shocking and may cause viewers to buy the album to see if the music is as shocking as the art.
Message = received. What about ones that flew off the radar?
The Hits
The ones that are the most interesting would be the teaser poster for the movie The Dark Knight and Star Trek: Into Darkness, and the cover for U2's album War.
-The Dark Knight: The focus is on the Joker, which tells us that the he is going to play a major role in this film. Focus is played within this poster to obscure the Joker so we can also infer that the character is mysterious. The “WHY SO SERIOUS?” blood smear is sharp and in focus, contrasts against the cool-toned and muted colors. The symbolism from the smeared smile over the Joker's blurred visage tells of insanity, yet it's easy to miss the broken Dark Knight bat logo at the bottom. The logo indicates that Batman is breaking; like the Joker, he is dark and mysterious and lives in the shadow of his past. “The Dark Knight” text is regal, yet encompassing and subtly sharp. Still, the Joker is larger than the bat logo and over the logo and text, evident that the Joker is in the spotlight, and more powerful than Batman? Makes you want to watch this movie.
-Star Trek: Into Darkness: This appears to be more minimalistic to limit what knowledge the audience will get about the film. The only obvious information given out is the main title and the release date. The rip in some sort of building or structure creates negative space, you could make out the shape of the Star Trek Logo forming in the opening. This now gives a metaphorical thought that Star Trek is being ripped apart in some form. The damage also seems to evolve around the only character in the middle whom is standing on top of the rubble, leading to believe that he is the source of the destruction. Through the opening, there is a city in the distance in the background, suggesting that whatever had happened from the audience's point of view will carry through to this city, or more metaphorically, the rest of the world. The way the poster is mostly dark and the cool-toned colors give a somber atmosphere shows that there are dark times ahead.
-U2 War: The most striking thing about the cover is not its complexity...but its simplicity. The album cover contains the picture of a child in black and white, it is not very busy, but it allows the viewer to be drawn into a deeper level. The black and white image shows the simplicity of war, it may seem complicated whilst it is occurring, but U2 may try to state this by showing that war is 'Black and White'. In contrast to the monochromatic background, the title is printed in a bright red. The color red has a lot of connotations, but the ones that stand out in this case are the relation to blood and anger. The child on the front cover takes up the majority of the frame, who is in a submissive pose with his hands above his head. This may show that he has been captured and is a prisoner. The image of an angry/submissive child is shocking and may cause viewers to buy the album to see if the music is as shocking as the art.
Message = received. What about ones that flew off the radar?
The Misses
The ones that seemed to miss their mark would be the movie posters for Everybody's Fine, For the First Time, and X-Men: First Class.
-Everybody's Fine: First, only the first 'E' in the text is a different font. The text seems to not have a clear direction, the "fine" is on a second line, and the actors' names are intersecting the title and the director's name, but they are all different fonts, which comes off as disjointed. Then the summary text is centered with the poster and not aligned with the other text. They all just seem to fill the negative space of the the white background. Also, the hand on the right is very clearly not Robert De Niro's hand. It's very probable that all of the actors were photoshopped into that position since none of this seems natural. Maybe that was the point? Anyway, the real kicker was the missed opportunity of the frame shown in the camera. If everyone in the poster was pretending to be fine, it could have been contrasted to what is being shown within the camera.
-For the First Time: This might be the most awkward angle for a photo yet. The focus is clearly the couple, but what are they looking at? Are they taking a picture of themselves, or are they just so in love? The colors are warm side of the spectrum, the sunset in the background, inferring the whole atmosphere to be angelic. The actors' white clothing make them become a focus without being too intense. But the real aspect that gets lost in space is the text. The idea of the script font contrasting with a simpler font was a good idea, but the "For The" has too many serifs attached to keep this font simple enough to work. It can also be noted that the 'F' and the 'E' are larger than the rest of the letters for probably no reason. Are the ledgers surrounding the "For The" supposed to make the text seem in a rectangle shape? (Why?) This leaves more questions than answers.
-X-Men: First Class: This takes awkward to a whole new level. The concept of contrasting the young and old of the same character is a great idea. Yet having a face in the silhouette can be a hit or miss if done correctly or not. It may have been a better choice to have the young character be the focus still but a whole body shot, and change the silhouette into a shadow of the older version of the same character, or vice versa. The shadowed face isn't even centered within the silhouette or the poster! The title is the same font as the others, at least. It all just feels like there was not that much thought put into this, or it happened to be a rush job and there was no time to make adjustments. It could have been so much better, especially for a franchise with a large audience who had seen this. Bet it still made millions in the box office.
Although some of these were clear misses, some artist has still created them, and they have still been put through printing and distribution. Which shows that what may seem as a miss to some, are a hit to others. That's what art is all about, isn't it?
