Good | Bad Design

For this assignment, I decided to evaluate fan-made posters for AMC's popular series Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, otherwise known as my go-to shows when I feel like binge watching Netflix and eating my weight in junk food.

The Good

The law of closure states that objects grouped together are seen as a whole. The law of closure was not used by accident in this poster for Breaking Bad. The small faces/bits of methamphetamine beneath Walter White are grouped together and seen as either a composite of either one large piece of crystal, or a composite of Walter White, whichever the viewer prefers. This also plays with the psychological context of the storyline of the show. Muy bueno! 

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This poster for The Walking Dead proves to be a good example of the manipulation of figure/ground relationships. What’s the background? What’s the foreground? The artist manipulated this relationship by placing the figure in a ground that is also a figure. (Whoah—what?). Suppose there was negative space around Rick rather than a zombie’s head. Would this have the same effect? I think not. Also, look at Rick’s placement: right where his bullet needs to go in order to kill the thing for good. This is another good example of how design can also comment on the emotional/psychological context of the series. A quick word on the use of color: while it’s very monochromatic and some might argue is boring, I think it works here because of the other elements going on in the piece. Design and contrast are not always about color!

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The Bad

To me, this is a bad example because of the lack of color and context. While this example does include the main logo and actor’s names (typically a good thing for branding and such), it falls short because it’s very busy and doesn’t give the viewer a direction to go. In design, everything should be done with a purpose. What is the point of the gradation on the left hand side of the poster? Rolling hills, maybe? The lack of contrast in font color and background color also don’t help this poster catch your eye. To someone who’s never seen this show before, I think he or she would look at it and go, “OK…So now what?”

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It’s extremely obvious that this design was done by an amateur. As I stated above, everything in design should be done with purpose. The placement of the zombies on the figure’s body are scattered, and because there are an even number it looks really bad. In interior design, a good rule of thumb is to avoid even numbers because people will want to count them. Also, while the arms coming out of the left hand side balance the weight of the poster, they come off very elementary looking.

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Some more fun designs: