Week 12- Visual Techniques

poster for the Moulin Rouge by Henri de Toulouse Lautrec

Irregularity
Fragmentation
Exaggeration
Spontaneity
Boldness
Activeness
Accent
Distortion
Juxtaposition

modern poster for the film "Moulin Rouge" by KO Creative

Balance
Symmetry
Unity
Stasis
Boldness
Accent
Diffusion

The first image is a poster created by Toulouse Lautrec to promote the Moulin Rouge nightclub. It is one of my favorite examples of visual design because it is all at once simple, entertaining, creative, and informative. The writing is irregular, with differences in scale making it dynamic. The figures in the image are fragmented, with different colors used. The colors are bold, and the female performed is accented. She is juxtaposed with the distorted man in the foreground and the exaggerated crowd in the background. The overall effect is of movement, business; there is a lot going on, and the poster is meant to make the viewer want to join in. The more modern poster, on the other hand, gives a sense of magic and mystery. It is perfectly balanced in positions and coloring. It is symmetrical, and the two figures appear as one. There is not much movement in the image; the dynamics comes from the boldness and accent of the colors and visual effects. The color is accentuated by the appearance of diffused lighting. Of course, Lautrec didn't have these effects in his day, but his poster was scandalous and exciting for the time period.

Week 11 CONTRAST

Obama poster, by Shepard Fairey (Obey)

This poster design exhibits good use of contrast in color and tone. The use of only three colors in the entire image and the use of creative shading give a heightened sense of light and dark in the image. This tonal contrast makes the image dynamic and interesting. The colors are clearly significant in the context of the content itself, as the poster is advertising the President of the United States. Though obviously not correct coloration, the context influences our perception of the colors to make them more normal. The viewer accepts the colors as realistic. The contrast in tone is not overly dramatic or shocking, so without the added colors in the image, it would just be a black and white drawing of Obama.

"The Deep End" film poster

This image is the movie poster for "The Deep End." Contrast in this poster is not optimal, and makes the poster boring and hard to understand. The color scheme makes images and words difficult to discern. The feature of this poster that stands out the most are the words at the top in yellow, which is certainly not the most significant aspect of the poster in term of content. Therefore, the pop out effect fails in this example. Shapes do not contribute to contrast in this example either. The image that takes up most of the poster is a face that is blurred, and the facial expression is vacant and unclear. There is nothing else on the poster to compare the image to, therefore no imagery contrast is possible. All the other elements of the poster are in the same colors, making the poster appear leveled and flat. The one possible redeeming quality is that the title of the movie is sideways on the side of the poster, but it is still on a vertical, paralleling other words on the poster.