Gig posters have been on my mind a lot lately, and I am really torn as to what I think of this whole scene. Through my week at Hatch Show Print (sorry, I am still working on the review), my stop at Hammerpress, the Sidekick podcast, upcoming Aesthetic Apparatus podcast and the traveling Graphic Noise show (which was great fun to see), I have some real issues I am working through. Let me share my hesitations and expectations on the whole gig poster scene.

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My eyes were just stopped short by this incredibly captivating poster image as I was sifting through upcoming film releases on a number of sites. I was instantly reminded of the drawing and painting of Ben Shahn in the rendering of these three boys’ faces, but also immediately reminded of countless Polish film posters and other middle European poster images.

Both in its typography and in its imagery this poster calls eloquently to our collective memories of 1960s / 1970s paperback book covers we’ve likely seen in libraries and on the book shelves of our favorite literature professors…

It’s really great to continue seeing truly outstanding ARTWORK vs. simply photography showing up on American film posters of late – I know we’d highlighted another recent incidence of a film poster that showed major signs of reviving illustration vs. photography as a vital film poster production method. It seems that independent film productions are really leading the way in this production / promotion area as well now…

The film looks terrific as well, so thanks to whoever the artist / designer of this is (I was completely unable to find any mention of them anywhere on-line – probably the only major “shame-on-you-Loki-Films” in this whole post) for generating the image that stopped my eyes long enough to find out what this film was all about to begin with.

Find out more about “The Boys of Baraka” here.

When I saw the trailer for “Walk The Line” my heart leapt at the thought of a movie based on the life of Johnny Cash. This may be a bit dramatic, but Johnny Cash’s music has been consistent in my life since I was a child. Likes and dislikes came and went, but my enjoyment of Mr. Cash has remained constant. I don’t know much about Johnny personally, but I look forward to seeing how Hollywood will portray him. Hopefully it will be on par with The Doors and Ray.

When I went online to find out more about the film, I couldn’t believe my eyes. A movie poster that didn’t have a single photo or montage. It is refreshing to actually see a well designed poster amongst the sea of mediocrity that is the Hollywood movie poster. The design is very appropriate considering the rich poster history of Nashville and country music from the likes of Hatch Show Print and many others. Will this poster make it to the theaters or will there end up being an alternate compromised version? If it does survive the box office I have little hope that this graphic will make it to Blockbuster. Every decent movie graphic eventually gets watered down by the time it hits video, or at best when the original special packaging is sold out and the cheaper version hits the market.

Who better to design a poster so different than the rest of the industry than the underground and subversive Shepard Fairey?

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This past weekend, the DesignOff! came to a close – almost…

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Have you ever surfed foreign sites just to look at pictures? I do. Sometimes I use Google’s translate tool to see what they are talking about, but other times, I just blindly surf. I follow link after link not understanding a single word, and not knowing where I will end up. Today I found a foreign design blog called Oeil Pour Oeil and followed a link to a site showing the best posters of Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. Maybe some of you understand German, but for the rest of us, it is pure eye candy.