121 – Rayna Lai

Design Principles

Too Strong for Blasters by Jeremy Saliba features a scene from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back when Luke faces down an AT-AT on the planet Hoth. The most predominant element in this piece is contrast in both scale and colour. By using the complementary colours orange and blue, the viewers’ eyes are automatically drawn to Luke as his orange suit stands out from the cold blue of his environment. Additionally, Luke is scaled-down, which helps magnify the massive size and grandeur of the AT-AT in front of him.

Although this poster for the movie Your Name is not exactly symmetrical, visual weight is distributed evenly enough for the whole composition to give a sense of balance. Cut in half by the flared light of the sun, the poster depicts two figures mirroring each other. One is shown in the city while the other is in a rural town but despite the difference in environmental settings, the even placement of each creates a stable and orderly look.

Gestalt Principles

In this book cover for Beach Town by Amy Hempel, words are scattered across the surface. Even though the same blue colour is used, the similarity of the font size helps differentiate between the title and the name of the author, allowing the viewer to make two groups of text.

In this alternative poster for the film, Ratatouille, Adam Fisher plays with figure/ground to add an interesting twist to the center of his illustration. On one hand, you get the image of steam rising from a pot. If you shift your focus to the kitchen wall, you’d be able to make out the silhouette of a rat (Remy) and a man (Linguini).

Visual Research I

To promote the Chinese theatrical release of the film, Spirited Away, artist Zao Dao created a series of posters – one of which puts the use of texture in the forefront. The first thing you notice in this poster is probably the clouds. The illustrated texture of them beautifully enhances the poster, with the swirling lines giving a sense of movement and rhythm.

Borderless Art Museum NO-MA’s poster effectively uses direction to add motion and to convey its message of “timelessness”. Typically, the eye gravitates from the top left to the bottom right corner of a page. However, this poster weaves its text and images along the curve of a spiral, directing the viewer to follow its direction. The title of the exhibition stands out first due to the size of the typography and then the eyes are left to flow counter-clockwise through the piece as the second vital piece of information, the date, lies at the center.

In Tom McCarthy’s novel, Satin Island, designer Peter Mendelsund uses splashes of colour to add interest to the cover art. Resembling oil drips, the iridescent colours stand out against the background of a black and white grid, creating a striking composition.