March 2006 Archives

My favorite thing about going to the theater to catch a movie isn't the buttery popcorn, it's the long screening room corridor lined with lively posters for upcoming movies. Unlike reviews and trailers, movie posters -- when designed just right set the mood. If much care has been given to the poster, you can bet your booty the director, actors, and everyone else on the film gave it their all too.

Of the upcoming crop of films about to hit theaters, V for Vendetta looks the most promising -- mostly due to their great posters. Sin City did it up the comics-to-film-thing perfectly and still tops V for Vendetta in terms of translating the mood of the comics to the big screen advertising, but V for Vendetta does come pretty close.

Even better than the re-imaging of the original comic book cover art into a poster are the versions with completely new visual concepts. I haven't been this geeked about a movie poster since Fairey strutted his posse-lovin' stuff for Walk the Line. Here's hoping this illustrated posters trend continues in Hollywood!

The only thing I love more than graphic design is music. Specifically, listening to and combining sets of songs into mixes.

If I wasn't an art director working for a magazine, I would probably be a struggling dj somewhere. To pay tribute to my favorite past time, I created a new mix about mixes and posted it to the Web's best mixmaker haven -- Art of the Mix. Be sure to drop into their image gallery. The art that folks submit can range from cheesy Web graphic collages to sophisticated covers featuring original artwork and typographic treatments. Truly a must-see, even for the non-mix lovin' creative type.

But back to those of you who would consider yourself a mix appreciator or creator, be sure to add Thurston Moore's latest book Mix Tape : The Art of Cassette Culture to your library, or just hop over to Wired to read his article "The Best 90 Minutes of My Life" or to NPR to listen to his thoughts.