OUGD404 STUDIO BRIEF 2 - DRIVE ARTWORK

Michael Gillette - Little White Lies Drive edition

This is one of the only illustrations of Drive I have come across which actually uses a realistic looking colour palette. I like the oil painted effect it has, and how the warm colours of Ryan Gosling contrast against the dark cityscape reflection in his sunglasses. This created a seemingly smooth appearance, that suggests everything is alright, yet is contrasted against what's going on in his sunglasses, which suggests the film has a darker side to it which isn't noticeable at first.

Pages from the magazine:

The colour palette for these two double page spreads are a lot more representative of the colours most common in the film itself, using mainly blues, pinks and blacks. This helps to link these pages more closely to the film itself, rather than just being an artists interpretation, so that the reader gets a better idea of the film and the kinds of imagery you can expect.

Paul Blow for RePrint event

This poster for Drive at the RePrint event in London uses similar colours to the movie, especially when it comes to the title "Drive", which is a bright pink colour reflecting the colour the official movie posters use for the title of the film as well. I like the bold shapes which are used to construct the title typography, however I don't feel it is reflective of the film, although this isn't a movie promotion poster so perhaps this is a good thing, as it should contain elements of both the event style and the movie style.

This is the limited edition movie poster for Drive produced especially for the RePrint event. The colours are again reflective of the colours of the film itself, and the use of a black background creates a very dark look to the poster This is contrasted with the pink of some of the main features of the design, however because the pink is a similar colour to red, which looks a little like blood, this has s slightly negative effect on the lighting up of the poster, but instead suggests it may be a little bloody. The white jacket Gosling is wearing is a major aesthetic which is continuous throughout the whole movie, and is presented in such a way on this poster by being a brilliant white colour that stands out really powerfully against the black and pink. This helps to emphasise it's importance. I also like the pink splats going up Gosling's legs, as this highlights the shape of the legs, but also suggests some sort of liquid coating them, perhaps blood because of the colour and the arrangement of his body looks as if he is being fired back after firing a gun, which also has connotations of blood and death.

I find this poster design really interesting, however I was unable to find the designer. The colours once again reflect the colours used for the official movie posters, and also the colours that often appear in the film itself. The vector style image covering the pages gives it a cleaner finish, however this contrasts with the many cracks and creases that have been put into the design to make it look worn. Gosling's head is blocked out by the shade, which is nice in a way as it shows us this character without a face, so you have no preconceptions about him, as you can tell a lot about a man just by his face. This also makes him a nameless hero, as he appears to stride out from the doorway as if he has just achieved his goal, with one hand placed in his pocket casually, as if it is all in a days work. I like how simple this design appears, separating the different aspects into separate colours, yet how specific parts stand out as being more intricate, such as the woodwork on the door frame and the cracks in the bricks as well, making it appear more complicated that was first thought, perhaps a reflection of the film.

Tyler Stout Drive movie poster

At first glance this poster looks to be in a similar style to Japanese posters, with the grid-like bottom half and the decorate palm trees around the sides of the top half, as well as the different characters heads shown all in a small space and in a kind of line as well. Similarly to the posters above this one also uses the colour schemes of pinks, black and white, which seems to be a very common feature of Drive movie posters. This poster is a lot more complicated, and not really in the style I would like to produce my book in, however I do like how the grid layout of the city is reflected in the grid layout almost lifted out from the city in the bottom half of the design. 

Mikehorowitz Drive movie poster

This is a very different style movie poster to all the other ones I have seen so far, which replaces the pink in the previous colour scheme with a bright but not fluorescent yellow. The black is also toned down to a dark grey so it doesn't look so empowering. At first this looks like an illustration of a hammer, which is a key prop in part of the movie, however when you look closer you can see that it is simply a yellow strip with a white car at the end, the tire marks on the "road" making up the pointed part of the hammer, and the headlights the front part. Because the yellow is transferred from the initial marks to other parts of the poster, this makes me think this design was produced using chalks, maybe spray paints, as it has a very grainy effect, and only chalks can be spread the way the colour is in this design. The "Drive" title is also understated and it definitely doesn't jump out from the page at you. This is partly because of it's yellow colour on a white background, but mainly because the letters are extremely spaced out so they fill the entire width of the page, but still remain a small point size. This is quite a peaceful representation of the title, as the gaps between the letters suggests that the letters are driving from one point to another, the same as Ryan Gosling does in the film.

Here is also a collection of movie posters for Drive, which I don't have time to analyse.

Fan-made posters:

Petar Gagic. This poster has an extremely different colour palette most of the other posters I have came across for Drive, using more of a peachy shade of pink, and a light turquoise shade, as well as a browny-grey colour and of course black and white. This use of the turquoise as the main colour of the design is a really interesting and effective colour choice, which also compliments the pink shade really effectively, as they are similar shades of brightness. The title appears to be part of the bonnet of the car on the grill, with `gosling's hammer hooking over the "D" as if he is hammering it on perhaps, or trying to pull it off maybe. The whole image is outlined in first black, then pink, then white, which creates almost a halo around the characters, and frames them against the background colour too, pulling them out from the page slightly. This is maybe something I should consider for my designs.

Cory Schmitz and Mare Odomo. The silhouetted design works really nicely, as you still get the impression it's a man, but he becomes an unnamed hero, rather than one whose shouting out about himself, which reflects Gosling's character's character. The gloved fist is also emphasised as it comes over the white banner at the bottom where none of the other artwork does, highlight it. This also adds a slightly aggressive feel to the poster, which is reflective of the content of the film. The whole sparkly appearance of the jacket and the title makes the jacket look glitzy and glamorous, as if he's a stripper maybe, however when you look closer they aren't sparkles but blood splatters. This creates a seemingly cheerful appearance, which in fact it is not. The title typeface reminds me very much of the "Flashdance" film title typeface shown above, which is all about dancing and has a few glitzy elements. I think the white banner at the bottom works very nicely in not making the poster appear too dark.

Timo Lessmollmann. I like the simplicity of this poster. There are only really three colours on the poster which aid this simplicity. This is also pretty much the only poster design I have seen which is purely type based, all the others have imagery as the main focus, which makes this poster a little different. The main thing I like about this design is the "I DRIVE" at the bottom of the paragraph, which the "DRIVE" emphasised in pink, the other bit of colour on the poster. I think this could be really interesting to include in my book, as it is a very powerful statement.

Pierrot Neron. This design is very creepy, and also incorporates the mask as the main imagery on the design, which none of the others I have found have. How he is peering over the black banner makes this design creepy and dark, even though the majority of the poster is in either pink of white. I don't like the blood spattered pattern over the mask though, as this just looks like it has been plonked down thoughtlessly, and has no real reference to the film, as the mask never gets blood spattered on it.

Jamie Hunter. This is a very simple yet powerful design, with a simple footprint being the only imagery on the page. I like how it appears as if someone has actually trod on the paper to make the foot print. The foot print is of the same shoes that Gosling wears throughout the film as well, a reference to the film. The white space around the foot print helps to emphasise the foot print.

James White (Signalnoise Studio). This is a very vectorised design, which is slightly different to many of the other designs, which look as if they have been screen printed, or at least have that textured quality to them. I like the colours used in this design, as the bright pink appears very bold against the black, however I don't really like the linear, almost cross hatched appearance, as it looks over worked and too complicated, which it doesn't need to be.

A series of movie posters for Drive by Rizon Parein

This is a very simple design, similar in ways to the design by Jamie Hunter, as it only has two main colours, pink and white, and uses limited imagery to have the most effect. The LED light display for the title also reflects the style of the film, and dingy bars and apartments which reflects the set of Drive. The pink of white has a simple, almost feminine effect, however makes you wonder what the film is actually about, as the name insinuates a film about cars, however normally car film posters are full of imagery, whereas this one is not.

This is another colour combination, however I don't like this one as much because the clear appearance of the title makes it hard to read the title, as it blends too much into the white background.

This is a really strong colour combination, as with "Drive" lit up it appears illuminated and even brighter, looking like a street light It also lights up the background slightly around it, making the title look like it is in a little bubble of light amongst a lot of dark, bad things, which reflects Gosling's characters life and role within the film.