Mini-Art School Part I (required)

For Part I of our Mini-Art School assignment, we are asked to analyze a piece of graphic design against the rules of design we have learned from a variety of sources. For my design example, I chose to analyze the “1917” movie poster, in honor of my pick for “Best Picture” at tonight’s Academy Awards. This movie poster is one of several made for this film, but this qualifies as the official promotional poster. Based on the rules we have learned about regarding design,

1. The first thing I noticed about this poster is that it does not follow the rule of typography brought up in the writedesignonline.com article. The type on this poster is very small on the background, however it could be argued that the “1917” shaped images are type themselves, in which case it would not break this rule.
2. From the same article, this poster does follow the rule of difference. The title is meant to be the focus of the poster and therefore is the largest and most vibrant part of the design.
3. The colors located within the title emphasize the rule of intensity as well. The intensity of the warm and cool hues included in the title make it the focal point of the image.
4. Based on the “10 Web Design Rules You Can Break” article, I would say that this poster does not make the movie’s purpose as clear as it could. The poster shows that the movie is about World War I, but it doesn’t give a description or any sort of tagline that would show any detail. The viewer cannot tell from the image what will make this movie different from another movie about World War I, which I think they should have done to make their purpose more clear and draw more attention.
5. Despite this, the poster aligns with the rule established in “White Space is Not Your Enemy” in that it uses simplicity and restraint. The design is very straightforward, and the poster is definitely not too busy. ( Hagen & Golombinsky 37).
6. This poster also went against the amateur error of centering everything. Every piece of the design is shifted to one side or another. (Hagen & Golombinsky 35).
7. Hagen and Golombinsky also point out on page 74 that a visual should not impact the flow of reading. Because the visual is positioned within the title, I am not sure if this counts or not, but I believe it was acceptable for them to break this rule, since the text is so large, and is simple to read. If it had more characters, it may not have been visually appealing and harder to read.
8. From Krause’s “Design Basics Index”, the poster does not follow line placement rules, as all the graphics are on the same background with images and text, but the text serves as a line in this case, complementing the overall images.
9. Krause’s description of the visual hierarchy was clearly implemented with the title image placed decisively on the design.
10. Krause also introduces the idea of “alternative cropping” of images, “Images need not always reside in a box.” (Page 194) The image used in this poster is placed inside the typography.