Model Dorrie Mack Photographer Joe M/ Tmedia (July 2015)

My friend Charlie read this article (The Insane History of Polish Movie Posters) the other day and ended up sending me a print of one of them, because he knew I'd like it, and he was obviously right. I was so excited to display it I whacked it on the nearest available surface, hence why it's currently hiding behind M&S vouchers. I didn't clock this initially, I was so taken in by the colours, but from the top of the stairs (and a little bit in this picture too) it looks like a face. It's great.

I promise not to turn this into a Polish Poster Blog, but another one of my favourites is the poster for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" by Franciszek Starowieyski. I have a print of it somewhere. I'll level with you - it's quite ugly! You'd think one of the keystones of good design is that the item is pleasing to look at, and this is anything but, so how exhilarating that an artist has the freedom to create something which doesn't conform to that expectation? I think it catches your attention, which makes it very effective nevertheless. For a start, when I saw it on eBay I couldn't stop thinking about it until I purchased it.

Here's the article, and I recommend reading it if only to find out the fascinating reason behind why communist Poland had such a vibrant movie poster design culture.

sabukaru

THE INSANE HISTORY OF POLISH MOVIE POSTERS — sabukaru

For decades a movement pushed its individual style to a new extreme, in ways that even for today's standards seem absolutely crazy and radi

Gil J. Wolman - ‘L’anticoncept’ - 1952 film

Grids and Layout

Grids are the skeleton that a layout is built upon. This helps organisation, readability, to produce the piece easier and quicker, easier for collaboration, easier to balance the design, creates an easy to make multi-page layout with consistency, enhances visual hierarchy, creates a starting point for your design and can be used to break the rules for impact. There is a full anatomy to a grid: 

Format - the full area/space for all the elements. 

Margin - space between the content and the edge.

Flowlines - to line up the text correctly.

Modules - space between the vertical and horizontal gutters 

Spacial Zones - multiple modules 

Columns - vertical spacial zones 

Rows - horizontal spacial zones 

Gutters - spaces between the rows and columns. And making them equal creates visual balance 

There are also types of grid: 

Baseline - consistent typography size and leading. Mostly used for novels. 

Manuscript - a large rectangular area which is good for continuous elements of text. A narrow box means a focus on the eye. 

Column - useful for pull quotes and they could be regular or irregular for variations. 

Modular - vertical and horizontal divisions. Useful for small chunks of information and to create spacial zones. 

Hierarchical - Loose and organic grids which create more freedom and can unify different elements.

Pixel - useful for design on screen. 

This lecture was useful by showing me key types of grids and layouts which I can refer to in my practice now and in the future to create successful editorial layouts. 

Viktor Hachmang

Cygnus Spacecraft Approaches Space Station in the Sunset  Space Station View of the Full Moon Earth Day_image

 by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

Blue Night.

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[040220] testing magic fingers

MRS NICE