Brief Evaluation - D&AD 'Little White Lies'

This brief was my shortest. I didn't push for a wide range of deliverables because the brief only wanted a magazine cover. I did focus mostly on this design cover and I feel I came up with an ok concept for the illustration. I did find this hard to do because the film is so dreamy and ambiguous that there isn't a real focused theme apart from Life/Death/ Childhood. Its pretty hard to draw all those things at once.
I did keep to the brief though, which asked to have the main character and as the focus and make it iconic.   If I had more time I would probably change the type that I used, perhaps trying more handwritten methods and making it slightly more legiable. When printed out it is readable, but on the boards it isn't which means if it were to go into production I would have to consider stocks to be used to make sure it was legible.

Submission Boards

Webbanner in situ

Printed out

The cover printed looks pretty good. The type isn't overly legible which may be an issue but I didn't want to make the type to bright other wise is would take the focus of the spiral which leads nicely to the face.

LWL web banners

Here are some design Ideas for web banners. I think the use of sections of the colourful windows on the black background brings a nice aesthetic and doesn't give too much away about the full design.

Final Cover

This is the final cover design. The colours and the composition I feel works well and looks like a real magazine cover. I decided to use the type following the spiral shape, I also increased the point size. of 'tree' and 'life' to highlight the title.

Spiral Colour

I added a dark back ground and then colour to the stain glass window. Then experiemented futher with type. I think this route for this project is working well and I think the cover is looking better than the bland 'just colour' background.

Spiral.

Using the idea of the spiral. I did another illustration. I think the composition and the concept works well.

Type

 Here I tried some handwritten type so it links with the illustration. I don't think either of them look good and the 'rooted' one is a bit obvious. Roots - tree of life.

Type on cover

Using the new colour I experimented even further with type.

Colour...

I used the idea of a inside of a tree to show the life span of a tree. A sort of play on words.

An alright idea but I don't think it works for the film.

Using the more ambient Idea of just colour behind I changed the blue to a greeny grey. I think this colour works better than the blue as it works well with the illustration.

Title Type

As a requirement of the brief you need to incorporate the title of the film into the cover. These are a few variations of type layout with the cover so far.

Beach / Blue

Using colour to bring the 'scene' alive I used mostly blue and grey. The composition stil doesn't feel right though.
I then added some texture and then I didn't think the sea looked good so I got rid of it leaving a just the colour blue behind the character which works quite well but needs more work.

More Cover Ideas

Another scene in the movie which could be used as a concept is the beach scene, another dreamy sort of scene where poeple past an present are all milling about. Another is the desert scene, where one of the characters is wondering around.

I think the beach one would be more appropriate for the cover as the desert cover may confuse people.

Cover ideas

Here I tried 2 different concepts for the cover. Taking imagery from the film seen HERE.
I don't think either of them work that well due to composition or colour. The orange/red of the sun is too bold and colourful for the general feel of the film.

Brad Pitt

This is the main illustration for the LWL cover. It is Brad Pitt who is one of the main characters in the film. He is definitely the most recognisable from the cast and people link Brad Pitt to the film.

The brief asks that you need a portrait of the main character and and all the other covers have the main characters face on it, so this illustration will work well.

Tree of Life ideas board.

Little White Lies - D&AD