Design Collaboration Artifacts - Billboards/Twitter

For our re-design of the National Film Registry, I chose to create billboards.  I thought that these would be great artifacts for the design because it would bring attention to this important registry of classic films.  My original design was to have a film reel with screenshots from classic movies in it with the slogan and the name of the organization, but the design didn't work at all.  It was too busy and it just got messy.  I feel that the above design works so much better because it's cleaner, it obeys the rule of thirds and it draws attention to the NFR without being too much. I think that the negative space on the top and bottom of the display really makes it stand out, and it sticks to the color scheme nicely. This billboard is for highways and larger displays.

This smaller billboard is for things like subway tunnels and inner-city advertisements.  It's got less contrast, but it still works with the rule of thirds and has contrast between the text and background elements as well as the contrast within the film reel's color scheme.  I also think that the font that we chose, Playfair, adds a classic feel to the ads as well.  

This last billboard I designed for things like bus stations.  It shows high contrast with the black background with red and white for the letters and shapes makes things really stand out.  This also obeys the rule of thirds in the top, middle and bottom with an important item in each range.  While my designs for these ads aren't full of leading lines or diagonals, I think that their simplicity makes them work better than a complex design would.

The final "artifact" that I did for this project is creating a twitter account for our "company".  The thing I've been doing with this is putting up trivia questions about some of the films in the registry to promote interest and enthusiasm.  I don't know about you but I love trivia, so I thought this would be a fun way to promote the NFR.  Our handle is @film-registry.

Mis-en-Scene - Production Design

The Darjeeling Limited 

Production Designer - Mark Friedburg

"Attracting artists from architecture, interior design, scenic design, theater arts and other related fields, Production Design focuses on the creative process of visually and physically developing an environment that becomes an essential component of the storytelling process. Production Designers must possess a keen understanding of the story in order to create a believable and realistic world on screen." (American Film Institute website)

For our Mis-en-Scene assignment, my group members and I decided to focus on "The Darjeeling Limited", a film directed by Wes Anderson.  The production designer was Mark Friedburg, and he did an excellent job of making this film visually appealing, and tying in many different elements to make this film work.  The majority of the film was shot in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, and captures much of the cultural authenticity of the area and gives a glimpse of the lifestyles of the people who live there.  

One thing that really astounded me about the design of this film was how much incredible color is used, really keeping it in tune with the culture of the area that they're filming in and tying it into all of the design for their advertising as well, like the one above.  Even the colors that the actors are wearing (minus their costumes) tie back into the wall behind them.  The lei that Schwartzman is wearing ties into the door behind him, and the front of the box that Brody is holding ties into the door behind him.  Wilson is holding a prayer position, which ties into the religious beliefs of the country of filming.  

All in all - very nice production design for this film.  

Compose Your Frame

I took this picture recently while I was on break at work.  This storefront (and honestly the store itself) is one of my greatest accomplishments as myself and my co-workers were the ones who pretty much put the whole thing together from nothing.  Not the point of the assignment but I felt like bragging a bit.  Anyway, This picture has diagonals, horizontal lines and leading lines.  Honestly I really feel like this photo really encapsulates this store, and while it is busy and has a lot to look at, it really hits the points of "framing" that we discussed in class.

Design Evaluation

So, I'm going to talk about the bad design first.  I really hated this album cover (and thats saying something because this is my favorite band of all time).  I just think that it could have been really great but was very poorly executed.  The dark text on a black background with the bright colors that accent it but don't really do a great job it really was a poor design choice on whoever decided on this album art.  The dark text on the dark background makes the band's name really hard to read, and doesn't do much to add to the overall design.  The colors work well with the dark, but the way they were put in really looks awful.  

This album cover in my favorite out of all of the ones this band ever came out with.  The light really draws your eye toward the doorway and the wall beside it flooded in light, which I think really plays into the album title of "The Open Door".  Everything outside of the light from the open doorway is shrouded in darkness.  There's even dark elements in the gown that Amy Lee (the lead singer) is wearing, and they get lighter the closer they are to where the light is coming into the space.  I just think that the design of this cover is much better than the first one.

Contrast, Balance and Harmony

This picture was something I found a long time ago - I think on Facebook or Tumblr.  I was immediately struck with how gorgeous this small piece of scenery was, and how much it reminded the of home.  What reminded me of Maine the most was the colors. The green of the trees, the blue of the water, the mountains covered with snow, even the sky being cloudy and gray.

I love the subtle contrast between the shoreline and the trees, and the sharp contrast between the trees and the mountains.  There's even a contrast between the gray of the mountains and the clouds in the sky, and all of this contrast, subtle or otherwise, makes this photo beautiful.

I also really like seeing the different textures here.  The mountains, rigid and jagged, and the trees with their many branches and points jutting up into view in front of the mountains and the water with its rippling surface...all of this somehow creates not just contrast, but they balance each other out with light and dark and make this a very harmonious picture.

My Visceral Response

Shortly before my grandmother died two years ago, my family made the long journey from Las Vegas to Newfoundland, Canada to go and visit her in the hospice where she was being kept comfortable until her time came to pass on.  I'd never been to Newfoundland before, and I was struck to the core with how absolutely stunning it was there, and how different it was from the large city I was so used to.  My aunt Pam and uncle Paul, who are very good friends with a man who runs a whale watching tour, got us a spot on a tour one day and off we went.  It was freezing, -10 on the water even in June!  While freezing my butt off and watching for the gorgeous Humpback whales (which we never actually caught a glimpse of), I happen to glance over and see this beautiful iceburg.  I immediately took out my phone and snapped a picture because, for whatever reason, this was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen in my life.  As I took the picture, I actually felt people staring at me as if I had gone crazy, but I didn't care.  I just new that I needed to take that picture.  

There are very few things in my life that have ever given me that type of response.  Even my friends will tell you that I'm not one for pictures, I don't take selfies, I don't snapchat, and I generally don't just whip out my phone to take pictures of random things just because I can.  But this was one of those things that was so utterly beautiful that I felt the need to preserve it.  For me, this is one of the pictures that will probably remind me forever of my grandmother and the place that my father grew up and its beauty.