So, we got a couple asks about the new Spider-man poster and how bad it is over on the @dragthemcu blog, and I wanted to talk about why it’s bad (You know, other than being unoriginal and cluttered) on this blog since this is more of a movie thing than just an anti-marvel thing.
I wanted to compare this new one to the original Iron Man poster because that was my immediate thought and it works, they’re a similar format, and also because it clearly illustrates the apparent problem with the Spider-Man poster: the lack of shadows.
So, in design there’s the form of the design, and the function. When it comes to this type of design, the floating heads arranged in a striking manner but not actually interacting with any reality, the function is more important than the form. The function is to introduce characters and using size relationships to illustrate their importance in the story. It’s what Drew Struzan has become a master of.
In the Iron Man poster, the shadows are used to bring unity to all the separate elements. So it’s a lot more like the background started off black, and the designer blended the elements into the background, instead of having this cityscape image with clouds and water, and then just photoshopping the elements on top. When all the various heads and other elements just fade out into the background without integration, it brings attention to just how scattered it is. It brings attention to the form and takes away from the function.
And that’s not even mentioning the awful colors, the weird random vignettes, the conflicting light sources, and the overall bad photoshop job.