I have spent countless moments of head-shaking and wincing while on the highways when I pass RV’s of all makes and models, only to be staring at badly executed attempts at “cool” graphics.

Mostly these graphics take on one form and one form only:  The badly implemented and overly used design convention known as the “Nike Swoosh”.  Now I have nothing against the actual Nike swoosh.  It is probably one of the most simple and globally-recognized logomarks around.  But any attempt at a logo for a tech company, telecommunications company, or computer services company always seem to resort to placing a crescent-shaped swoosh over the name or around it.  Ugh!

That being said, this same convention has unfortunately littered our roadways in the form of useless, and randomly placed graphics on the sides of recreational vehicles.  I guess the intent is to imply speed and make them seem like they are going faster than they are even remotely capable of.  But this is such a farce.

Worse, their placement is undoubtedly managed as acts of randomness.  There seems to be no order or thought-process as to where they need to be placed. In the case of the swooshes, they are usually overlapping, and visually seem to contradict where the eye should be directed.

And if it isn’t a swoosh, it is a random, sharp-looking shape or totally irrelevant graphic.  And when there is a concept for an RV design, say where the RV is called the “Cougar”, and you need to have a graphic of a cougar on it (because let’s face it, people wouldn’t understand the name if you didn’t), it is a graphic that someone created who bought Adobe Illustrator two days ago and have seemed to master it in that amount of time, especially the art of gradients.

Now I am not saying that all RV’s should be devoid of any graphics.  With a smart use of color and nice execution of the design, one can create a dynamic and nicely done application of graphics on an RV.  One whose color palette is modern, and the visual lines of the piece actually all move in the same direction as the vehicle moves, thus having the design make sense.

Thus lies my presentation of The Good (only one), The Bad & The UGLY:

The Good

Not the ultimate in best examples, but you get the idea that if properly applied, it can be done decently.

The Bad

At least the placement isn’t so random and the graphics are used as mild decoration, not the emphasis.  Hmmmm… love that bad gradient applied to the ribbon. Yum!

The UGLY

They couldn’t just leave the horizontal lines alone could they?  “what this needs is a confusing pile of swooshes!”…

Who comes up with the names for these?!!

And it just doesn’t get anymore random than this!

I welcome your comments on this post.

“Lasinen Lapsuus” is Finnish for “Glass Childhood“.  This print ad campaign, designed and created by Euro RSCG Helsinki is for the purpose of educating the public. The Fragile Childhood activity has begun in 1986 and has been established as a well-known form of activity in Finland. Its goal is to help children who suffer from parental alcohol misuse.

As quoted by someone who was effected by the project:

I was shocked to hear that after only a couple of drinks my child doesn’t know me anymore. In my own eyes I’m just starting to be tipsy, but Niko thinks I’ve become another person. Mama is gone and he’s left alone.

The brilliant simplicity of this ad lies in its striking image and simple copy and its minimalist approach in its design.

Very inspirational!

Blow Out

What I greatly admire about this poster is the HUGE amount of negative space. The title and visual elements… everything is pushed to the edge of the visual plane. Pretty avante-garde for its time.

Gallipoli

Again, the use of strictly one color to convey this design.  I love the high-contrast image with the type pushed right up under it.  A very common convention by today’s design standards, but not really used that much back then.

Arthur

Here is why I picked this poster for my list.  I love the fact that the top of the layout has such a rich, detailed, and ornate look it with all of the gold palattes and the whimsical image of Dudley Moore in the bath.  This is contrasted by a huge field of black negative space which simply helps to sustain the eye towards the top of the poster.  In addition to that nice visual convention of eye control, the designer created a nice logotype for the movie that really helped capture the essence of the character of Arther.  Slightly lazy and relaxed, yet playful.  The tilted “a” was a nice and simple solution.

Escape From New York

Not only a cult favorite, but I always loved this poster for not only the visual “lean” it had to it, but the depth conveyed in the primary image.  The lead-in copy nested  between the towers that draw the eye downward to fall on the disturbing image of the Liberty statue’s head laying in the street.   Very commanding image.

Chariots of Fire

Okay, I admit it.  I love negative space.  What can I say.  It is the most revered of design conventions by designers and the hardest to sell to clients.  Clients feel that negative space should be filled.  That somehow they are not making the best use of their money on ink and paper.  That being said, another great example of using the space to work the elements and drive the eye and sustaining it at the top where the line of runners is.  Not only a brillant flick, but a great movie to boot.

The Fan

Okay.  This was an interesting one for me.  This almost looks like a student entry in a design class. The pencil sketch of the body at the bottom gives this poster a crude, elementary look.  Yet the dinner jacket into knife wedge that divides the poster in half makes this a brillant design move.  Something just the opposite of amateur.  It makes this poster bold, strong, and striking when it catches one’s eye.

Tarzan The Apeman

I loved the obvious comic art approach of this poster and the rich ornate drawings inside of the lettering.  It gives the poster a rich feel and the dominant forrest green of the poster frame was very unconventional but a great use of color.

Ragtime

I loved the cloth texture within the silhouette and the gorgeous vintage type treatment for the title.  It’s clean layout and stark white background only help emphasize the two main elements of this poster. Nice….

The first thing I noticed about The Ruins by Scott Smith was the fact that there were no chapters.  Coming in at a whopping 509 pages, this was quite a departure from my usual fare of James Patterson novels where there is a new chapter every two pages.  While I thought that this was an odd convention, I can see now why the author chose to do so.

This novel kicks off and runs at a quick pace.  Never was the prose too lengthy or overly descriptive to the point of wanting to skim read.  I found myself eating up every word.  And I found myself building very vivid and detailed images in my mind of the characters, surroundings, and disturbing plot points.  Let’s just say that usually a novel of this size takes me a good 3 weeks to read, barring my busy schedule.  But I drank deep from this novel and finished it in a little over a week.

The premise?  2 young couples befriend a few other vacationers down in Cancun, Mexico.  When the brother of one of them disappears, the group decides to track him down to a remote, ancient Mayan dig site in the deep, lush jungle.  What they find there and what awaits them is an ancient horror that they would never have dreamed of. Their perilous story is what unfolds with each page that is turned.

What I loved even better was that the conclusion to the novel isn’t your usual, natural conclusion to a story.  Which makes it stand out even better to me as a great novel.  All the while reading the novel, I kept saying to myself that this would make one heck of a great movie.  Only after finishing it up did I go online and find that they did in fact make a movie out of this novel. Seeing the trailer, I already found some major discrepancies with the novel, which make me curious to see the movie and whether the ending was changed into a more standard ending.  I now find myself at that crossroads of whether the movie will ruin the overall memorable experience I had with this book.

Creepy, rich, and something that will keep you up at night, The Ruins is a tour-de-force of great reading.  I have become a Scott Smith fan and will now have to hunt down a copy of his first novel, The Simple Plan.  My only concern at all is whether he will continue to write fiction.  He has proven that he has a natural talent and an imagination that would give Stephen King and Dean Koontz a run for their money.

A must read!

In the realm of graphic design, it was the year of bright, neon color palettes, airbrushed illustrations, and geometric shapes that showed up in everything from album covers and magazines to… you guessed it, movie posters.

However, the full effect of this shift was not yet apparent in the first year, that is 1980. However, that doesn’t mean the year was short of a few, inspirational cinematic posters that set themselves apart from the rest of the pack.

The Shining

While a certain image of Jack’s face peering through the splintered door is what has become the culture’s main image from this film, its movie poster took a different turn to get viewers attention from the sidewalk marquee.  A full background of yellow is met with no main image other than the title treatment, with its slightly ambiguous and creepy stippled face inside the lettering.  Nothing else.  Simple. Clean. And very effective.

Altered States

The brillance in this poster’s design lies in its unusual image of an upside-down William Hurt, a muted-toned brown duotone color palette, with nice accents of the colored plugs going into his head.  Here, color is used in a minimal way, but very effective way.

Head On

Strong directional lines always are an effective method for drawing the eye into the layout.  This poster is a good example of that.  The road median helps to bisect the layout and give it a symmetrical feel.  The strong straight lines however are contrasted nicely with the loose, brush-script title treatment.  But what makes this poster so effective for a dark film?  By forcing the viewer into what should be a very symmetrical design, the very asymmetrical eyes are that more noticeable which gives it a very disturbing vibe to it.

Airplane!

“Surely you can’t be serious. And don’t call me Shirley.”

One of the most famous parody movies of all time deserves a poster that is equally memorable.  The concept of twisting an airplane and not overcrowding the layout is what makes this iconic poster so effective.

“Pardon me… do you speak Jive?”

The Elephant Man

I love a movie poster that helps really capture the visual tone of a movie.  The visceral feel of it.  The grainy, bleak image used for the main focus of this poster helps to really set the stage for this poignant film.

Middle Age Crazy

I had to save the best for last.  The concept for this poster is so far from the rest of the pack, it is nothing short of fantastic.  The mock-newspaper, with its varying headlines and rather obscure method of displaying the important information about the movie is what makes people stop and really take a look at this poster.  Nicely done!

Creative designer and illustrator Troy DeShano designed a series of minimalistic posters that helped promote one of these film festivals celebrating the life of John Hughes.

The most brilliant of these was for, you guessed it, The Breakfast Club.  The obscure composition and layout, with its unusual cropping of nothing but shins and shoes is what makes this so fantastic?  Why? Because it was the unique characters in the film that made it so memorable and Troy somehow found a way to portray them distinctively so that you know exactly what film this is before you can make out its subtle title at the bottom.  The muted color palette, the lithographic texture of the piece, the subtle tile pattern of the school hallways.  Truly a creative approach and executed with sheer genius!

Check out the complete series.

Agatha (1979)

I really liked the simple concept of this poster to showcase a biographic movie about one of the greatest mystery writers of all time.  Utilizing the assemblage of a jigsaw puzzle to work the layout space from the promo copy to the title treatment was a nice touch.  It works and helps convey the complex and puzzling nature that made Agatha Christie so popular as the Grande Dame of Mystery.

The Black Stallion (1979)

Okay… while I was not a huge fan of this tear-fest film, I have to give props to the poster designer.  Taking the simple, yet textural quality of an old parchment paper and then creating a bold, distinctive and memorable ink-sketch of the pen scribble into the horse’s profile was really a brilliant solution.  Nice layout, clean, and the two-tone look makes this a good entry to this list.

The Rose (1979)

I liked this poster for the dominant image of the rose, however its orientation is what makes it stand out even more.  It dwarfs the black-and-white image of Bette Midler, which is another unconventional approach.  Top that off with the supporting text at an angle and you have a very progressive poster design. Nice job!

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Never a fan of the whole photo montage, floating head convention of movie poster design, one memorable poster, however, was able to do it well.  Not only a monumental film, this poster has such a strong image.  The obscure, yet jarring image of Brando, the monochromatic hues of red and orange, and the very famous logotype treatment for the title, make this a fantastic entry.

The Electric Horseman (1979)

I had to save this one for last.  While crude in it’s execution (but hey, they didn’t have Photoshop clipping paths back then, right?), this poster was sheer genius.  The simple headline of the actor’s last names, and one one from the title and in a vibrating pure red hue.  The extremely unconventional and bizarre pose of the two actors (which really leave you guessing, or assuming, as to what exactly is going on.  The type on a tilt.  The flat, medium-gray background color.  This poster seemed to really breakaway from what every other poster in 1979 was doing.

Next up… the Decade of Decadence.  The 1980’s…. stay tuned.

Guys’ Shirt (black)

Ladies’ Tank (white)

Chateau Lettau’s 2007 Rockstar Label

Below are a series of images from his Vanitas series.  For more of this inspiring contemporary artist, view the rest of his work here.

“Black Still Life”

“Consumption”

“Design For Life”

“Last Days”

“Prosperity Decay”

“Shelf Life”

“Wasted Youth”