Minimalist Poster April 2013

[gwpriester]

I'm assuming a lot of people get shot and there is lots of blood.

My first job out of art school was working as a junior art director at Grey Advertising on the Ford Motor Corporate account in Detroit.

We were a small office that did a lot of the work that New York did not want to dirty their hands with.

We were asked by the client to do a tune in ad for the TV premier of the movie Mutiny on the Bounty that Ford Corporate was sponsoring. And it had to be done overnight and presented first thing the next morning. And this was just as I was preparing to go home at the end of the day.

I designed a black silhouette of the Bounty and did a very clean layout and type design. I was very proud of my effort.

The next morning the client came into the conference room and I presented my dramatic, minimalistic ad design.

The client gave a nervous laugh and then said, This a joke isn't it? Where's the flogging scene, where are the wah-heens (his pronunciation of wahines), and he named a few more key scenes.

I argued that Saul Bass would have done something very simple like this that captured the spirit of the film in a single symbol.

He scoffed and said I was no Saul Bass. It was not a pretty site and I left the meeting with my exhausted tail between my legs.

This was my introduction to movie advertising. They like to get every key scene into the ad. What did I know?

If you presented your creative and well conceived balloon design, by the time they got done with you, you would have the original poster you presented.

[Egg Bramhill]

.

[Rik]

That's very good tale, Gary, about your minimalistic ad design.

Yes there is shooting in the film, and at times, a lot of it!
The three holes did get me thinking, though. In the second film, Morpheus says, "I see three objectives, three captains, three ships…"
So, maybe I was trying a bit too hard to fit in 'three holes' into your poster.
I like the design, Gary.

EDIT: I looked up Saul Bass. A bit of a coincidence that he designed the Minolta logo, and I happen to be working for Konica Minolta at the moment!

Egg: Very good as well. I assume it's Morpheus's specs?! I was actually thinking of doing something similar.

[Egg Bramhill]

It was meant to be Mr Smiths glasses Rik, but as everyone in the film wears dark glasses it's difficult to tell in a minimalist post.

[Rik]

It was meant to be Mr Smiths glasses Rik, but as everyone in the film wears dark glasses it's difficult to tell in a minimalist post.

Because you're not showing a frame on the glasses, I assumed that it was meant to be Morpheus'.
But, I am pleased you had a go, and I like it.

[Egg Bramhill]

Frames? Ah yes, but I was trying to be minimalist

[Rik]

Frames? Ah yes, but I was trying to be minimalist

How on earth can I argue against that.
When that's what the idea is supposed to be?!