Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Week 14 Contrast

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKbQrEQ3FCS8XFUS7pEhYZFDe5vtAZQ1JvGcprBYKp_KlYrUO6xzNXmiOS_vJIAoMCwzpbJDqq-BKTYsJ3BVJ6GaGLV3RwnykJWxf-_hjbg2WE3S63xj6v5StquVErqkDzC5orKNgiQI0/s1600/HAWKEYE2012008_COV.jpg
This is a cover for the new Hawkeye comics (a series I've recognized a few times for good design this year) The most startling interesting thing about the reboot of the title is the artist's decision to take a more minimal approach to his design in both color and line detail. This minimalist style creates very effective high-contrast images. Here the stark contrast of the woman's white skin against the red background makes her shape pop out and is contrasted again by a set of choice black items. Because the issue focuses on a femme fatale character the choice to highlight the gun and the woman's heels is especially effective in emphasizing what this woman is about. Additionally the black gun pointing down draws the eye downwards to the woman's high heels which also point downwards continuing to draw the eyes down to the title of the comic. Overall the use of minimal color creates a lot of contrast which makes for a very striking and effective design.


http://comiccoverage.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8345158e369e20115708ce2cd970b-pi
In general, a lot of early 2000's cover designs were not great. This particular issue of Captain America suffers from a few flaws but here we're focusing on low contrast. The main issue with the lack of contrast is that the colors are so similar in tone and saturation, it is hard to recognize who or what is going on in the image. Captain America's hair and head are too similar in color and the lines sepearting them are too thin to create a proper distinction between them. This is further muddled by the second character's bust behind Cap's head, blending the flesh tones in even further. The low contrast problems are also present on the upper right where the red and white stripe motif of the shield blends unfortunately with the red and white flag background.

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