Week 15: Visual Techniques

Shadow of the Colossus

Visual Techniques most prevalent: Asymmetrical, Juxtaposition, Contrast, Exaggeration, Simplicity

Portal

Visual Techniques most prevalent: Simplicity, Economy, Activeness, Flatness

How they work

The first cover, from the game: Shadow of the Colossus, aims to have a cover that is striking and shocking. The point of the game is, as a tiny human, you must conquer and defeat gigantic creatures known as colossi in a desolate landscape. This promotion shot, by utilizing an imbalanced juxtaposed picture really gives you a sense of how large the in-game bosses are and give you a sense of epic wonder. Meanwhile, another famous game: Portal, also uses a simplistic approach, but this time much more simplistic than Shadow of the Colossus. Portal is a game about using portals to teleport between two places and solve puzzles to escape a science lab. The game uses minimalist design choices and let's the game play shine through with a brilliant story. It doesn't rely on fancy graphics to have an incredibly fun game, and the promotional art reflects that. Just looking at it, you can see how it emulates symbols in modern day to explain what the basic premise of the game is about. Both don't rely on incredible uses of color or extremely fancy graphics, but use art to help explain what the game is about and give a sense of wonder. 

Week 14: Contrast - Club Flyers

 Good Example: Ruby Skye feat. Fischerspooner

Here we have a club flyer featuring Warren Fischer at the San Francisco Club, Ruby Skye. Here the ad features prominent use of color as contrast to the black and white photo of Fischerspooner.  Color is overlaid transparently against the heavily contrasted face of the DJ but gives a unique appearance, almost like a mask. His face is contrast with tone against the plain black background, then the colorful adds another dimension of contrast of color (along with tone). These overlays   Another interested aspect of the "color-mask" is the red gives the male DJ the appearance of wearing Lipstick. It adds an interesting dimension of male vs. female, challenging the social norms. I find this to be an excellent club flyer that utilizes both Tone and Color contrast to give an air of mysteriousness.  

Bad Example: Illamasqua feat. Not Dreaming of a White Christmas

For this (terrible) example, we have a flyer featuring a Christmas-type themed party for the club Illamasqua. Similar to the one above, it "attempts" to have tonal contrast along with color contrast on the face. I understand they were trying to convey against a "White Christmas" but with this approach, you end up with an overly racist flyer. Known as "Black-Face," this stylizing of the Caucasian woman to appear that she is of African descent (which I'm sure isn't the original intent but that's how it ended up) was a horrible attempt at contrasting against the usual "White Christmas". To fix this, they could have chosen any number of colors besides black, or have chosen to not color the model's face black while leaving her lips pink. This flyer isn't challenging you to think differently, but it does succeed in getting noticed... negatively. Also tonal range and contrast isn't as apparent as compared to the good example. 

Week 13 (week 5): Success and Failure of Video Game Covers

Successful Cover: "Journey"

Journey is an indie video game developed by Thatgamecompany for the Playstation 3. It was released on March 13, 2012, via the Playstation Network. In Journey, the player controls a robed figure in a vast desert, traveling towards a mountain in the distance. Much like the stylistic choices of the game, the cover also represents the vast simpleness that is compelling to look at. The cover utilizes leveling that evokes a peaceful, yet mysterious like scenery. The game does utilize with a tiny bit of stress with the character cloaked in the non-muted color of red. You almost feel like you're in his place among the vast earthern desert. Also evident is a strong vertical axis. Your eye is guided from the star on top down to the robed character on the bottom. Along the way, your eye witnessed the title of the game: "Journey". Simple, clean, this is an excellent example of a game cover. 

Failure Cover: "Batman: Arkham City" 

Despite winning numerous awards, Batman: Arkham City, was lauded for having one of the worst video game covers ever conceived for their "Game of the Year Edition". This is an example of Stress gone horribly wrong. Despite the fact that at first view, the game looks like it's titled "10 out of 10", the game also uses a quote from Gamepro (which no longer exists). All the quotes that "promote" the game actually highly detract from the subject matter of the game. There is no specific grouping; quotes are thrown about everything so you eye has to travel everywhere to read them all. Also Batman, who arguably, should be the subject matter, is reduced down to too much negative space, so you eye only focuses on the full quotes themselves. Ironically, game of the year also earns worst game cover of the year too.