Read my embarrassing bio on page 4! It took me about 2 weeks to write…

  11:21 am  |   March 31 2011   |  2 notes  

So the winner for the Life Just Is poster competition was announced today. Unfortunately, I missed out on winning but I’m happy enough just that I was on the shortlist. I’m happy with the final decision, and feel like I was well on my way to creating just what they were looking for. Congratulations!

Watch out for the E-Book of designs currently in production!

  7:46 pm  |   February 28 2011  

In the end I submitted 2 poster designs to the Life Just Is competition, but only one design made it onto the shortlist of 9 designs. I wanted to take my designs in two completely different directions, in keeping with the art-house influences I had researched previously. I made this design based on what I knew about the themes of the film, and tried to apply them in an interesting way. It’s a lot less structured than my first design, purposefully trying to look a little scattered in reflection of the lives of the characters.

  2:54 pm  |   February 22 2011   |  1 note  

I’ve just found out that my poster design for the Life Just Is competition has been shortlisted. 105 posters were submitted and voted for by the public and a panel of judges, 9 remain to be judged by the film’s producers and the director. The results will be announced on the 28th Feb.

  2:45 pm  |   February 22 2011  

The deadline for the Life Just Is poster competition was creeping up, so I decided to get my designs in a week before the with no regrets. After constantly switching between two very different styles and being indecisive about which I preferred, I decided to split them up and submit two designs. The first is based on the grid-like photo-montage style, and the second is a but more abstract, using cut and paste techniques to create an image.

Judging begins next week, I believe there will be an open vote on Facebook before the judging is handed to a panel to create a shortlist. Even if I’m unsuccessful, I should make an appearance in an e-book compiling all the competition designs, so I will feel like I’ve achieved something.

Designs to follow!

  1:10 pm  |   February 2 2011  

One idea for the Life Just Is poster, just a quick solution based on my research into Arthouse style posters. There aren’t many specifications on what to include in the poster. It must include the name of the film, the cast list, the website and the words “coming soon.” I made this design based around the minimum requirements.

  4:52 pm  |   January 4 2011  

Here is another example of a grid-based poster design for film Quite City about a 21 year old girl who spends 24 hours with a stranger in Brooklyn. This design uses block colours, as well as hand drawn images to create the overall image.

  3:18 pm  |   January 4 2011  

This was an example of film poster sent to me in the introduction pack from Life Just Is. The film follows a musician in his life’s journey.

This poster is similar to The Cool School in many ways, even thought it uses all available space and is much more image oriented. It comes across as an organised photo-montage, each photo representing an aspect of the film. I’ve noticed that all the images are black and white, and only one other colour is used. Again the typography is bold and contemporary, matching the blocky, linear style of the rest of the poster.

Although I was sent this example, searching the internet has led me to an alternate solution to representing the film.

I think this is a poster variation which also made it onto the DVD cover. It’s a very different approach, using one full image rather than a range. This poster also loses the contemporary sans serif typography and replaces it with hand-rendered type and little doodles. It reminds me of a photocopied zine style, where bits have been coloured in and drawn over by hand. I can’t say I like it as much as the first example, but the colour gradient is an effective use of colour in this case.

  3:13 pm  |   January 4 2011  

The creators of Life Just Is have described the film as being based on Arthouse influences, so I’ve been looking at existing poster designs from other independent Arthouse films to get a feel for how they differ to major blockbusters.

This is a poster for 2008 film The Cool School, a documentary style film which explains how to create an art scene from scratch. I especially like the poster’s use of space and colour. Nearly half of the page is negative space, and everything else is either black or yellow. The typography is modern and simple, bringing the attention to the colour scheme and the photography leading away from the film description.

  3:00 pm  |   January 4 2011  

As Life Just Is is currently in post-production, I have no chance of being able to watch the film before the deadline for the poster competition. I’m going to be optimistic at this point in time and take this as a positive. I have had to make judgements of the film without watching it, in the same way that the viewer of the poster will make certain judgements about the film. In my design, I will try to make the viewer see what I see about the film. First impressions.
I have been given a list of considerations to take into account with my poster design. These are:

1. The poster must accurately represent the film.
2. It must represent the film’s arthouse influences.
3. The poster must convey the film’s focus on character.
4. It must show something of the film’s stories and themes.
5. IT MUST BE APPEALING TO THE TARGET AUDIENCE.

The film’s characters are in a similar situation to myself in a way. I am currently enjoying the life of a student whilst panicking about the uncertainty of the future, so I can kinda apply myself to this poster design. I would definitely say that I am the perfect candidate for this film’s target audience. I have read a synopsis of the film and looked a little at the film’s blog and youtube channel, so I am started to get a feel for it. My main research now will be into arthouse and independent film-making, as these are the areas I know least about.

  3:00 pm  |   January 4 2011  

I’ve found an interesting competition to create a poster for an upcoming independent feature film called “life just is.” The film follows a group of young graduates making the transition into adult life, however the film touches on life-issues that affect most young people such as relationships and even death. As a graphic designer, I want to suggest this using as little text as possible in my poster design.

Life Just Is has characters and themes that film festivals are designed for, to look at the state of the world with humour and insight

I haven’t been able to watch the film yet, but there are some interesting little insights into the making of the film on their youtube channel.

COMING SOON.

  2:50 pm  |   January 4 2011