There has been some discussion in the past about timelessness in design. In an article all about the important elements of logo design, Jacob Cass includes timeless design as one of the 5 key elements of a good logo. In the article, Jacob presents a really interesting and telling timeline that contrasts the logos of Pepsi and Coca-Cola across a period that spans over a century. Interestingly, while the Pepsi side has 11 different variations, the Coca-Cola logo is shown to have remained the same.

Considering that (at least in my experience) Coke still seems to be on the winning side of the Cola Wars, there’s certainly something to be said about the impact of a timeless logo as it relates to brand and identity.

Designing for the Moment

Other articles on this subject have also dared to venture into the murkier waters of the web, where its relative newness, continuously evolving technologies and dynamic nature all make this question of timelessness much more difficult to nail down.

Over on Visual Swirl, Leighton Taylor questions whether or not websites should be designed for timelessness or trendiness. Though the framing of the article itself tends to polarize these two concepts, and probably causes many designers to get their backs up right off the bat, the point that Taylor is actually trying to make when he ultimately suggests that websites should be both timeless and trendy is that, like so much that relies on technology, you don’t want a site to look old and out-dated.

In this context, I think that what Taylor is actually talking about has less to do with trends and more to do with modes of visual expression. For example, he references this particular incarnation of the CNN website design:

CNN.com on July 3, 2010 (click to enlarge)

In reference to this screenshot, Taylor writes:

CNN uses their classic logo while updating their site’s design to show that they are relevant and with the times, and this relevance adds value to the network’s brand.

In my view, this statement pretty much wraps up what the article is driving at. The point is not to be trendy, but to be relevant, and the article posits that, from a design perspective, one way for websites to accomplish this is through a certain form of visual expression. The CNN website makes use of several techniques (subtle gradients, underlying grid etc.) that help to establish a contemporary appearance without necessarily appearing overtly “trendy”.

A Parallel in Fiction

We can see the exact same thing in the world of the written word. How many young people do you think would want to sit down and read through the Gothic romances of the eighteenth century? Probably not very many. Several hundred years removed, the language would seem dense and inaccessible, and the cultural context almost entirely irrelevant.

Yet, how many of these same young people have spent hours reading through the books in the Twilight series, or lining up to watch the recently released movies based on those same books? Millions. But how different is Twilight from those old Gothic romances? At a fundamental level, not as different as you might think. They are simply love stories wrapped in different language – both literal and cultural.

The same is true of design. As I have said before, a good design involves making intentional and purposeful decisions about how to frame some particular form of content. Part of those decisions involves using a relevant visual language that best allows the viewer to understand and connect with the design.

From this perspective, then, it becomes clear that it is at least somewhat important to design within the cultural context of the current moment. In certain circumstances, however, I would suggest that this goes even further.

Momentary Content

While things like (most) logos, related identity pieces, books and other things that are intended to last should certainly be designed with timelessness in mind, there is a very broad range of content that is actually not timeless, but which is rather firmly entrenched in a particular moment. How much design is done for various events – conferences, concerts, festivals, sporting events – that happen at a very specific time?[

Probably quite a bit.

Logos, websites, fliers, posters, direct mail pieces, billboards and magazine ads are all designed with the specific intention of promoting that particular event. And, since that particular event is actually to be held in a specific place at a specific time, what's the point of creating something timeless?

Doesn't it actually make more sense to create something that actually fully and completely reflects the time in which the event is to take place? If the design looks out-dated two years down the road, who really cares? As long as it accomplishes the objectives for the time in which it was designed, then it can be considered a successful design, even if it is not ultimately a timeless one.

The only reason I can think of for wanting to make sure that a design of this sort is still relevant a few years down the road is so that it can remain a prominent piece of your portfolio. That being said, however, I don't think it's a really great practice to design client projects with your portfolio in mind, since this can cause the design to become more about you than about the client (even unintentionally).

Examples

Since the entire world is currently wrapped up in soccer (football) fever with the FIFA World Cup approaching its ultimate climax in South Africa, I thought it would be interesting to use this as an example of what I'm talking about. Back in 2008, David Airey posted at article outlining the various World Cup logos that have appeared over the past 60 years.

Here are examples from 1954, 1970, 1998 and the current World Cup Logo

Switzerland 1954 Logo

Mexico 1970 logo

France 1998 logo

South Africa 2010 logo

To check out more of the examples, be sure to check out the full article, and see how, to some degree, each logo is more than just a logo. They are also reflections of the time (and the place) in which the event was ultimately held. In many ways, even looking back on them, their reflection of their unique moments actually makes them even more effective, since each logo becomes something of a historical record that, in some way, captures the spirit of its time.

Of course, the Olympics provide a similar example. I’m sure we’re all aware of the broader Olympic logo, with its five distinctive, coloured rings. On it’s own, that single logo certainly is timeless, and will likely continue to endure for years to come. However, each individual games also has its own logo too, and these do tend to be less timeless, and designed more for the moment.

WebDesigner Depot has a really awesome post that collects many of the different logos, from 1924 through the the monstrosity that is the London 2012 logo.

This kind of thinking doesn’t just apply to logo design either. I think it also makes sense in other forms of design too. For instance, I work as a volunteer adult leader at my church’s youth group, and every single year we take our kids to an even called Overflow. It’s an awesome three day convention that gets really hyped up, and every year they have a different theme.

Every year, they also have a completely different kind of event branding, which gets repeated through all of their posters, booklets, promotional videos and, of course, their website. Here’s a screenshot of this year’s design:

A screenshot for the Overflow 2010 website (click to enlarge)

Notice the bold use of large typography, the grungy, half-tone, splatter graphics and the bold non-web safe colour scheme, all of which are very much a part of the current visual language of current design – especially on the net. The design is relevant to its readership right now, in this particular moment. It may appear stale or dated a few years down the road, but like I mentioned earlier, that doesn’t matter, because the design’s purpose is to serve the now.

In this particular case, it matters even less, since the website gets an overhaul every year anyhow, in order to match with the branding of that particular installment of the event. So, by the time that the current design does become out-dated, it will also be long gone and a new design will have taken it’s place – hopefully one that is equally as relevant for its own time.

Conclusion

I could probably go on and on, offering all kinds of different examples, but by now I hope that you can pretty much see what I have been driving at. While timelessness is a nice ideal, and certainly something to strive for in many projects, it’s not always necessarily desirable.

First, forms of visual language will change and evolve over time (perhaps even more quickly in the age of instant information), and any new design has to bear this in mind in order to be successful. Second, some of the content that our designs are built to frame is actually connected to a very specific time and place, and may very well benefit from a design that is less timeless and more reflective of its actual temporal and geographic placement.

In the end, I suppose it comes down to this: design is all about communicating a message, and perhaps it can be useful for us to actively consider not only the message itself, but also it’s duration. Is it a message that is meant to continue and endure, or is it a message meant for a very specific moment in time?

Of course, I am not suggesting that you cannot or should not create a timeless design for some messages that are, essentially, temporary. If doing so works and makes sense, by all means follow that course of action. What I am suggesting is merely that perhaps designs that contain a much more immediate message can actually sacrifice some of the timelessness in order to leverage the power of the here and now.

What do you guys think? Do you consider the relative duration of the message in your designs, and possibly change or adjust your approach accordingly? I’d love to hear your thoughts or read about some of your own examples.

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There’s no doubt that movies are big business these days – really big business. For the most part, I like watching them a whole lot more than I like watching the bulk of what’s on TV. I wouldn’t say that I’ve seen a lot of movies – not compared to some people that I know – but when I do sit down to watch a film, or go to the theater, there is no doubt that my favorite genre has to be the epic/fantasy.

In this post, I have collected 30 awesome movie posters from the contemporary era of film making (I don’t think any of these were released prior to 2000). There’s some pretty nice eye candy to be found below, but instead of just providing you with some awesome, epic posters to look at, I would also like to consider some of the design trends that we see recurring throughout this collection.

The Lord of the Rings

Okay, what would an article about epic posters be without paying homage to Peter Jackson’s epic The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which was totally awesome and had some really great poster designs? It’s also a great place to start because these feature some of the key trends that I want to look at – the ensemble design and the monochromatic design, both of which I’ll discuss more below.

For now, let’s just admire the realization of Tolkien’s epic vision.

The Fellowship of the Ring

The Two Towers

Return of the King

The Ensemble

The ensemble technique is immensely popular in epic movie posters, especially in films with large casts or a wide range of important characters. Often, the main character will be featured at the center, or as the largest figure, with other characters surrounding them according to varying degrees of importance. Other times, as in the King Arthur poster, the design simply features that which will capture the greatest attention – namely the lovely Guinevere (Kiera Knightly)

Eragon

Transformers

The Golden Compass

Stardust

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

King Arthur

One of the great advantages of the ensemble (and you will see more examples below), is the ability to showcase multiple aspects of the film through the various characters. In cases of a star studded cast (see Alexander), it also provides an opportunity to showcase all of the well known actors who might help draw an audience (Colin Ferrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer and Anthony Hopkins).

Monochromatic Colours

Another really common technique in epic movie posters is to work the design so that it maintains a mostly monochromatic feel. We saw that in the Lord of the Rings posters, which all had somewhat subdued earth tones. You can also see it, in varying ways, in each of the following posters.

Pathfinder

Avatar

The Scorpion King

The Dark Knight

Beowulf

The Matrix

The blue in the Avatar poster, obviously matches the colour of the Na’vi, and is the primary colour of the film. The same is true of the The Matrix, which has a sort of dark, blueish tinge to it. The beige colour of The Scorpion King is also used in the posters for the related Mummy films, and connotes the sandy characteristics of the film’s principal setting.

All in all, the monochromatic effect is used primarily to establish the tone of the film in some way, whether that be for the prevailing colour of the film itself, or simply a technique to set the desired emotional tone.

The Ancient Texture

The ancient texture effect is a useful technique for epics in the truest sense of the word – and which have their roots in the ancient world. This technique basically uses some extra texture, superimposed over the rest of the poster design in order to give it that ancient, weathered look. The poster for Troy is an excellent example, both in terms of the strong use of texture, and the fact that the film is based on the Homer’s epic, The Illiad.

Troy

Alexander

Kingdom of Heaven

Gladiator

Often, this technique is also a subset of the monochromatic effect. As you can see from the four examples above, they all have a beige/brown tone to them, with very little in the way of additional colour. Again, this helps to establish a sense of age and history.

The Solitary Hero

In direct opposition to the ensemble is the technique of the solitary hero. Like the ensemble, this is less of an effect a more of a compositional decision, which places the attention squarely on the film’s central character. This works particularly well for these kinds of films, because it puts the emphasis squarely onto the most important part of any epic – the main hero. There is just something incredibly awesome about seeing the character all on his (or her) own.

Prince of Persia

10,000 BC

Underworld

300

Clash of the Titans

Robin Hood

Spiderman 3

Often, you will find the solitary hero technique used on alternate posters, which will often appear in a series of posters, each featuring a different character. The Beowulf poster is an example of this. The Robin Hood poster, however, appears to be the main promotional image, as does the Prince of Persia poster.

Lighting Effects

This is probably the least specific of the trends we’re looking at, but it is also very common to see epic movie posters that incorporate some sort of dramatic lighting effect. There can be any number of reasons for this. On the Prince Caspian poster, the lighting effect seems to shimmer off the sword in an almost magical manner. In the Iron Man poster, the lighting effect emanates from the suit itself. The Spiderwick Chronicles poster uses light to cast an eerie glow and the Inkheart poster uses it as a narrative technique, indicating that much of the story actually comes out of the book.

Prince Caspian

Iron Man

The Spiderwick Chronicles

Inkheart

Ultimately, the lighting effect can be used in a number of different ways, but what it generally does best is to just add a real sense of energy to the poster, whether that energy be literal, atmospheric or magical!

That’s a Wrap!

So there you have it, 30 awesome movie posters from the last 10 years (or so) of epic film making, and 5 interesting trends that we can see emerge from this collection. Of course, there are probably many other films that I could have included, but these are some of my favorites – either in terms of the poster design or the film itself (I haven’t seen all of them – yet). And you’ll have to forgive me for including all three Lord of the Rings posters. I’m a real fan.

So, what do you guys think? Did I miss your favorite epic movie poster? If so feel free to leave a comment and let us all know what it is! Also, do you see any other trends emerging from these posters? If so, please share! I’d love to hear all your views and insights

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Those of you who may have read my 25 Dark Websites and 25 Creative Footers posts may be noticing a pattern developing here. I’ve decided to do my best to stick with the whole 25 theme for these roundup articles. It’s just a nice, round manageable number, but still enough to prove valuable. I have a wide range of different ideas for these roundups, too, so be on the look out for more coming your way.

I’ve also been doing some thinking about roundups in general. I’ve seen several different posts just this past week that are complaining about how the authors’ RSS readers are getting crammed with all kinds of roundup posts – so much so that it’s getting difficult to find other, valuable content.

I guess I hadn’t really thought of that before. Most of the stuff in my reader is actually tutorial and/or freebie oriented. I see most of the roundups I visit via Twitter. Still, I certainly don’t want to be viewed as clutter, so I’m going to do my best to add extra value to these roundups with a bit of extra editorializing!

Anyhow, today I want to look at a trend that I’ve been noticing in my frequent visits to various CSS galleries. It seems that on almost every page of these galleries I see sites that are designed around green and grassy imagery. Obviously, such sites don’t actually appear on every page, but there certainly are a lot of them! They tend fall into one of two categories. Either they use a ground level view of grass as a sort of horizontal divider or feature lush rolling hills – usually vectorized and cartoony.

Here are 25 different examples of this trend.

Anna Pawelczyk

Blogsville 2009

RIPIE

TwittGround

New House Farm

Ten24Media

Acroex

BimbiSicuramente

Blossom Village Resort

CampamentoUniversiatrio

Clark Studios

Dean Oakley

Foot Steps

GeoVision

Guga

HearthCore

Jaider Morais

Juan Diego Velasco

KiddiKicks

Mint

Parcheggio

Riegos Ariel

Slim Kiwi

SPAFU Online Marketing

Yodaa

These sites come in varying degrees of effectiveness, and I am in no way trying to suggest that these are great or sensational designs (though I did weed out some of the weaker designs – pun intended). I am also not saying that they any of them are poor. This is simply a showcase. However, this collection certainly demonstrates that there is a very strong trend towards using these this kind of imagery in web design. And there are many different types of sites represented, suggesting that it is not just one particular group or industry that’s latching on to this trend.

You make also notice that these elements all tend to work pretty much the same way. The grass stretches horizontally across the screen, creating a clear and logical divider. Most of the sites listed here actually take advantage of this, using the natural break as a means of organizing their content in some form or other. It’s an interesting technique that many of these sites actually implement quite well.

Now, before you get too inspired and run off to throw a grassy divider into your next website design, let’s take a moment to think about some of the advantages and disadvantages of using this kind of imagery.

Advantages

• Position yourself as Green – The entire concept of the environment and climate change is a huge deal these days. Many people are thinking and talking about it, and this use of nice, green grass very naturally posits your site as being “green”.
• Natural Divider – We’ve already touched on the fact that that this design technique provides you with a very obvious horizontal break, which you can use to organize your content
• Open and Friendly – Grass can suggest friendliness and openness – a sort of neighborly camaraderie – and could be a useful visual element if this is the kind of image you want associated with your site or brand.

Disadvantages

• Position yourself as Green – Wait, didn’t we just mention this as an advantage? We did indeed, and while it can be beneficial, it can also work against you. Many environmentally conscious people are also very aware of what companies are doing, or not doing, and can have very strong backlash against those who try to make themselves look “green” without taking any actual steps or initiatives to helping the environment or slowing climate change. Beware of the backlash that can come from this kind of “greenwashing”, even if it’s unintentional.
• A Tired Concept? – This post alone collects 25 grassy sites, and I had several most listed when I was doing my research. I’m sure there are more than that, too. So, I think it’s pretty safe to say that this kind of imagery is pretty common out there on the web these days. As such, unless it is a perfect fit for your site, you may want to think twice about following this particular trend.
• Wrong Visual Cue? – Another possible disadvantage with this trend could be the strong associations that grass can convey. Will visitors immediately assume that the site has something to do with grass itself – perhaps a seed or fertilizer company? As designers, we always (or at least almost always) want viewers to look at something and get it right away, not have to puzzle it out on their own. If using grass (or any other design element) will obscure meaning rather than reveal it, then it’s probably not the right choice

Obviously, this is just a really cursory look at the trend of using green and grassy designs on the web, but I hope that it has been at least somewhat insightful and/or inspiring for you.

I’d love to hear you opinions! Have you ever used grass as a design element? Are there any other sites that you would like to add to this list? Are there any other advantages or disadvantages that strike you? We’d love to hear them, so feel free to drop a comment!

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