F & C: I <3 NY

This poster is so awesome I almost can't handle it. It is designed by David Klein for Trans World Airlines (TWA) and serves as a beckoning call for travelers to come visit New York. The color scheme is vibrant but not overwhelming and creates a fun, welcoming atmosphere about the poster. I'm particulary a big fan of the illustrated typography and abstract shapes. While the design is mostly type dominant, the playful illustrations add a wonderful dynamic. It is balanced mostly toward the upper half of the poster, which is achieved with the volume of words on the top half and also by the direction of the Statue of Liberty's arm pointing up. Although the words are all so different, they are united by a similar typeface, size, and repeating color. This poster says New York is a hip, fun, loving place and would definitely make me sing John Mayer's rendition of "in your atmosphere" in which he repeats: "I don't think I'm going to go to LA anymore."

All in all, I think this poster is very well done and successful. I got me a new city love :)

F & C #5

This design is a cover from a 2001 issue of the Ford Motor Company Corporate magazine. It was designed by Mutabor,Design, one of Germany's top 20 creative agencies. The company has a large clientele that include: Adidas, BMW, Panasonic Germany, and Universal Music just to name a few. "Mutabor Design is specialized in the evaluation of trends in terms of significance for product brand and media development--and in the translation of these trends into strategic design solutions."

For the above design solution, the group wanted to culture of luxury" to Ford employees and consumers. There are several natural elements in the photo that help make the design effective---the alignment of the trees creating straight lines, the horizontal lines of the building making a kind of invisible grid, and the repetition of the black-suited male models..these things create a good balance of harmony and tension in the design and they just make it feel right.

The proportion of the two trees creates a high contrast foreground, background and works well to organize the text and grad attention. It works well.
The choice of type is interesting because its not all the same and is sort of robot like.

The contrast between the softness of the wind blowing the palm tree and the cold, stiff type that mocks the male models could convey a message of peace and tranquility, like the wind, while representing the clean, crisp image of the Ford Motor Company. It works.

In closing, I just liked this quote from Mutabor. It says,
"Society constantly deals with corporative directions and trends that have influence on its visual and linguistic habits. Graphic design constantly deals with the transformation of shapes, content and points of view. The future of graphic design means bringing all of this together and transposing it into strategic design solutions that are relevant to their audience."