Digital development of cryptic code posters

Digital development of cryptic code posters

The next stage was too progress and digitize the ideas that received the most positive feedback in the crit. This first one been the strongest idea. 

Taking forward the idea of creating my own symbolic language to present the cryptic code influenced storyline of the film I took influence from the design work I reviewed from its nice that. Random adaptations of simple shapes will be the main influence.

I will combine this with another visual element, the shapes will represent glyphs in this symbolic language so I will create a numeric system based on the ancient mayan numerical system seen here. An abstract representation obviously, the visuals won't be relevant to there actual numerical value as its my own cryptic language I am creating they just support the individual "glyphs" when combined with the shapes. As code is never just made up of letters its always a combination of letters and numbers I felt it relevant to visualize this concept somehow. 

I began trying to visualize some rough sketches of glyphs made up of symbols and shapes and line art. Quite liking the abstract illegibility of the cryptic style symbolized "glyphs" they have an aesthetic quality too them rather than functional legibility like normal letterforms. My intention was to create glyphs inspired by symbols that had individual aesthetics too them so Im on the right tracks here.

Playing about with lines and layering of contrasting color lines, quite like the idea of lines as it has loose links with the linear pixels old computer screens used to have. This pixelated sort of resolution visual has links with the film scenes were the puzzle that simon cracked is shown on an old PC screen. 

Playing about with geometric shapes to create letters and words. Works well but doesnt really have a consistant cryptic code kind of feel. 

Tiny detailed glyphs and symbols work better than large scale imagery. 

I liked the pixel inspired linear line art and the geometric shapes tried out in prior sketches so incorporated the 2 shapes to create a rough idea of my cryptic code/language. Its starting to look like a kind of cryptic sort of language now. 

Taking influence from the mayan code and more consistent angular style shapes. I Combined the linear elements and the contrasting dots inspired by the mayan numerical system with these shapes. This created a nice contrast of angular elements, linear elements and circular elements. This use of unique combinations of lines and dots creates original and distinguished glyphs that all have there own abstract aesthetics too them which is exactly what I intended. Now to digitize the code language I have generated. 

The starting point would be to start with square and remove sections off them to create abstract shapes. 

I plan on abstractly presenting "Mercury Rising" within the symbols. This will add that interactive element for the user to visually decode the movie name and this element of curiosity within this visual puzzle for the viewer will hopefully draw them in along with the combination of high impact imagery. 

Using the shape transform tool were the shape on top is erased from the shape underneath in adobe illustrator. 

Once I had a selection of shapes created I used these as a base to create negatives from the square. As you can see near the bottom half of the design they are the small jigsaw puzzle pieces that connect and interlock within the larger counterparts. This idea of interlocking shapes has links with a jigsaw puzzle wich is an interesting thing to visualize as it still links back to the storyline of Simon having a love and talent for puzzles and how he cracked a government code through a word puzzle. 

I gave all the symbols room to breath and made them a consistent size, they work much better within the composition of the negative space now. You can appreciate the shape of each symbol.

Not sure on showing "Rising", as clear as this though I prefer the idea of it been entangled within the glyphs like the word "mercury" that runs down the central horizontal spine of the composition. 

Much better visuals. Looks more like a pattern of code now there isn't obvious readable words within the design. These illegibility and unreadable words create that interactive feel of decoding. I decided at this point I wasn't going to concentrate on making the movie title words too visible as i sort of failed on making them legible enough within the mass of other symbols it became confusing. I am just concentrating on presenting the visuals in a very cryptic way that presents an abstract use of symbolic code as my original intentions were in the beginning of my ideas generation. 

I began incorporating the lines and dots system inspired by the mayan numerical system. Put some rough filler text in to decide if the balance of negative space was working within the bottom and top half of the design at current there is too much white space and a top heavy balance going on. 

All the line elements added now. I'm liking the visual aesthetics going on here and the red on black contrasts nicely and visualizes a very digital feel. But as mentioned it is slightly top heavy within terms of space usage, adding another line of symbols should balance this out in conjunction with the title and actor type information. 

Adding the circular elements to the glyphs and symbols now. The circle helps highlight the horizontal 45degree leg of the uppercase R in an abstract way. The circles also keep the eye moving around the glyphs and symbols adding a certain element of movement to a still image which wasn't intended but I was happy with this outcome. 

Playing about with some colors for the mock ups of the screen prints  The silvery grey color been inspired by the chemical/metal "mercury", red coming from the connotations of action and the black balances everything out and gives it that digital feel. The contrast of the grey background and the black doesn't work well though it draws all the attention too the red wich draws the eye away from the black symbols & glyphs. 

Perfecting the positioning and centering the dots too there symbol counter partners. 

Tried switching the colors around using the red as the dominant color but this draws all attention away from the symbolic language I created and really does hurt the eyes a lot through a simultaneous contrast of colors. 

Created a more subtle outcome with this pastel blue color. This works nice but the blue is a dominant color and doesn't really have any connotation based references to the synopsis & storyline of the film.

Back too the grey stock digital mockup. This lighter stock creates a better contrast between the background and the symbols creating better legibility of the individual symbols. 

Making sure everything aligns perfectly to create even balance of the space usage within the composition. 

I really like the idea of using grey on the screen print production as it will give me opportunity to use a metallic silver ink so went back to this idea and removed the background color to concentrate on the composition and positioning of the graphic elements first. I added 2 more rows of glyphs/symbols to take away that top heavy feel that was obvious before when there was more negative space on the bottom of the page.

This didn't give much room for the type information too go while maintaining an even gap from the bottom of the page (margin area) as seen at the top of the page. If the type was on one line it would be ok but 2 lines wouldn't allow much space.

So I removed one row and this seemed to create a perfect balance with sufficient space to add typographic information. 

It was mentioned in the crit to look into the matrix visuals. So I grabbed an image to influence some matrix inspired imagery to my abstract representation of a word search. 

I played around with the type columns creating a feeling of motion like the matrix "raining code" and a better overall aesthetic that made use of the space of the negative space within the page more.

All was needed then was to add the typography. I kept information minimal as the focus was on the imagery, like many great movie posters they depend on high impact images to draw the viewer in and create a memorable snap shot of the film advertisement. 

I framed the type up with 2 simple lines as the type wasn't very high impact so this sort of focused in on the typography. So there wasn't need of high impact heavyweight large pt size ornate typography to draw the attention in. I kept information minimal and only mentioned bruce willis as he is a iconic actor. A lot of people only consider watching films for there actors even if the storyline is poor, this wasn't a very good film so I felt this would be a good idea.

Started off with right aligning the typography but it felt a little lost and there was too much negative space too the left due to the nature of the eye reading information left too right this just wouldn't work. 

Brought the information to the left and changed the alignment to flush to the left side. This created a better balance within the negative space of the 2 lines that framed up the typography but there was still too much negative space.

Decided to try shorten things down and bring everything into the centre a little more. This works a little better as it aligns better with the 2 columns of type that pert rude and fall towards the bottom of the page composition. 

Went back to left aligned type too the design but this left a whole chunk of negative space too the right of the design.

The best solution too this was too centre the type frame work (2 horizontal lines) so them as visuals created balance within the negative space of the bottom of the composition. The type was left aligned and aligned flush with the 2nd column of symbols and finished flush upto the 3 column creating a solidified structure of the type & image. Nothing felt like it was "floating" about it all seemed to lock into place, much like a jigsaw puzzle, or cracking a code. Perfect for the synopsis of the film. 

I then went on to create my final digital mockup using the same color scheme and paper stock mock up. 

The bullet holes obvious color choice would be red to simulate blood, the glyphs and symbols running out of them visualize "typographic blood". Which as mentioned has links with the action aspect of the film involving guns, shooting, blood and death, combined with the cryptic code, coding and puzzle solving aspect to the film. 

The balance within the piece is a lot more spacious. But it works well still and the mercury rising typography is much more legible and readable in this example compared to the previous design. Again typography was kept simple but this time due to the minimal imagery used within the space I could use heavier typography to create a higher impact drawing attention in. I created this higher impact with a bold weight helvetica in a large pt size than the previous design. I chose this typeface due to its perfect legibility, contrasting angular stems and legs with elegant curved bowls and curves and its overall cleanliness.It works perfectly in conjunction with the abstract symbols & glyphs I created. The circular elements within the bullet holes contrast with the angular symbols well, this contrast of curves and angles is reflected with the typography choice as well. 

Removed the little dot at the end of the line that the typography rested on to give it a visual baseline to rest on so it didn't feel like it was just floating out of place at the bottom of the composition. The dot was there to create a visual focal point and a means of balancing out the negative space to the right of the design composition but it just looked out of place.