Visual Techniques

San Francisco Art Expo 1981 by Patrick Nagel 

Asymmetry, Contrast, Simplicity, Flatness, Stasis

Harper's Bazaar cover by Erte 

Contrast, Asymmetry, Activeness, Flatness

Both poster designs employ the visual technique of asymmetry. Patrick Nagel's poster for the 1981 SF Art Expo uses the technique to asymmetrically portray the golden gate bridge behind one of his signature women. Erte uses asymmetry to create a contrast between the models on the right and woman's face on the left. He also uses contrasting colors to highlight the red carpet, the gold of the curtains, the blue of the models makeup and the white of the skin and gowns of the models. Nagel also uses the same contrasting colors to highlight the red of the golden gate bridge and the pale white skin of his model. Both artists also use bold lines to emphasis the flatness of their subjects and backgounds. This is an element found in both of these artists' signature styles and shows off their influence from the bold lines and bold colors found in Japanese woodblock prints. While Erte's piece suggests activeness with the posing and placement of his models on a runway, Nagel's pieces uses stasis to emphasize the calm, romantic feel of his model and the golden gate bridge behind her. 

Contrast

iPod advertisement by Apple 

The early advertisements for the Apple iPod featured a successful and appealing way of using contrast in advertisement design. They all featured a dark silhouette of a dancer, a white apple iPod in his or her hand, against a contrasting colored background. The white of the iPod, signature white ear buds, and the white iPod logo all draw the viewers attention and make them immediately aware of the product that is advertised. The dancer silhouette provides a nice contrast and graphic image to go with the white iPod and the colored background. Other similar advertisements feature the dancer against a more psychedelic background, providing a visual metaphor for the sensation of listening to music. The faceless dancer allows the viewer to more easily imagine themselves as the dancer. The image and contrast along with the effectiveness of the simple "iPod" text all work together so nicely that no other text, slogan or product description is needed. This advertisement design by Apple is both simple yet memorable and brings to mind the simple and memorable designs of most apple products.

Shape-ups ad by Sketchers

The contrast in this ad for Sketchers "Shape-ups" shoes fails almost as much as their shoes fail to help a person lose weight. First, the contrast in the text sizes adds little to no visual hierarchy to the text. The text of the body paragraph is almost the same size as the text of the header adding little contrast and little attraction for the viewers eyes. The lack of difference in fonts does not help the situation either. The some of the white text is outlined with a purple border which actually makes the words blend in more with the purple background rather than stand out against it. The completely white bodies of text have no luck either and are almost completely unreadable, drowning in the intensity of the purple background. Also the lack in different font styles used does not establish a visual hierarchy either. All the text looks roughly the same adding little variety and little interesting features to this ad. 

Movement/Motion

The Avengers movie poster by Marvel

The implied motion used in movie poster advertisements is most effective when advertising action/adventure movies. The poster for the film The Avengers is filled to the brim with implied motion . The poster portrays all the films main characters during the epic battle that takes place during the movie's climax. Each superhero is caught doing a heroic stance, ready for action. Others, mainly The Hulk and Iron Man, look as if they are about to attack an off screen enemy. The backdrop of the heroes also contains implied motion. They stand in the center of New York city which is under attack as buildings crumble or catch on fire in the background. Spaceships spin out of control and fireballs fall from the sky to further portray the destruction. Even the circle surrounding the "A" in "Avengers" logo is implying a circular motion, bringing to mind the group leader Captain America's spinning shield attack .

New Super Mario Bros. U game cover by Nintendo

The game cover art for New Super Mario Bros. U uses implied motion to advertise the game play of the new Wii U game. The characters are all facing to the right which is the traditional direction that side scroller video games such as Super Mario Bros. follow. The characters are also all shown floating in the air, since jumping on your enemies is the main power in Super Mario games. Other new flying abilities are also portrayed such as using the raccoon suit to glide through the air. Mario's friends the Yoshis appear in this game as well. They are also portrayed floating in the air and shown using their new abilities for the game such as flying and using bubbles to defeat enemies. The text of the game's title is given a three dimensional feel as if it were bursting out of the box at the reader, further emphasizing the three dimensional look and feel of the game. The word "new" is enclosed in an action bubble, most often scene during action scenes in comics and bringing to mind the intense movement during those action scenes.