A book turned movie

If you’ve ever read any of the books in the “Confessions of a Shopaholic” series, you know more or less what to expect in the movie. But even if you didn’t, the poster can more or less lead you in the right direction.

The poster starts by capturing your attention with the bold red color, which is of course very dominant. In our culture, his color can also represent several facets of this movie. For example, this movie is categorized under drama, which could be predicted based on the color red’s connotation with drama. This color can be closely associated with clothing and accessories because it’s so popular with women choosing what to wear, which is definitely something this movie revolves around, seeing as how the main character is obsessed with shopping. Furthermore, red is a very vibrant and passionate color, not unlike the main character.

The simple lettering in grayscale contrasts with the rest of the poster, but without distracting its audience too much from the picture that basically encompasses the movie. The picture of the girl dressed in what is obviously a carefully-chosen outfit and carrying several shopping bags represents the movie because shopping is her passion.

Also, the “From the best-selling novel” was probably placed in all caps because it is likely to get readers of the series to want to see it. Although this isn’t usually my type of literature/film, I read some of the Shopaholic books one summer, so when I saw this poster, it caught my attention. I am not sure I’m interested in watching the movie, but if I had enjoyed the series more than I did, I probably would’ve chosen to go see the movie, as well.

Tropicana gets a new look

Going along with Pepsi's new design, Tropicana also has a new design, wordmark and logo. Tropicana is part of the Pepsi Company, so it looks like the company decided to do multiple redesigns. The new carton is simplistic and plain. The old design had a very recognizable picture and wordmark. My roommate and I were at Kimmel the first time we saw the new carton design. She was looking for orange juice to drink, and passed right over the Tropicana label. After realizing her mistake, she commented on how the new carton design looks very generic. I agree, it doesn't stand out much and is easy to pass over, like a generic version of orange juice. All in all, I don't think PepsiCo is doing a very good job with thier new designs. What do you think?

An Alternative Super Bowl Logo

Searching on the web for new logos, I found that The New York Times decided that there should be an alternative Super Bowl logo this year. The chosen one was a cartoon-like design by Stefan Bucher.

"The Super Bowl audience is stagnant. Any logo designed for the current target will not increase viewership. For the Super Bowl to thrive we need to tap new audiences. To this end I've designed a logo to engage the highly energetic, vigorously monetized and entirely underserved nerd segment of the viewing public by connecting the N.F.L. experience with a few of their cultural touchstones," said Bucher.

One of the cultural icons that Bucher is referring to is probably the ∑ symbol, which not only denotes the sum of a set of variables, but more importantly (in this context, at least), stands for Greek life, which is currently extremely popular among college kids (a prime audience for the Super Bowl). He might also have meant the chemistry symbol since the ones that appear in the logo represent the testosterone molecule, something connected to “manliness” and thus, “manly” sports and their respective events, such as the Super Bowl. Similarly, the triangles at the bottom represent team logos. Also, the barcode might stand for our society's ubiquitous consumerism, which is well apparent in the Super Bowl's association with advertisement. Moreover, you can take a look at the slogan in antiquated font—which could stand for something the Super Bowl definitely is—a tradition.