I’ll be honest: I don’t know much about graphic art. I’ve seen it. I’ve spent a lot time wandering the rooms of the MoMa looking pensive, and ds106 is currently producing a lot of hot art. But nothing has made me appreciate graphic art more than designing a minimalist movie poster.

With this assignment I wanted to experiment with texture and shape. It took me a while to figure out what movie I wanted to do, but I finally settled on the Pirates’ movie Dead Man’s Chest. Second, I needed to watch the movie again (very necessary). While I was watching the film, I was drawn to the character Jack Sparrow’s face painting as the Cannibal King.

It is a key scene to the film. The character Jack Sparrow is found on a remote island but is in a bit of a tight spot. This plot twist means that the character Will Turner (Orlando) must not only escape from the island himself but must also rescue Jack from the Cannibals.

The Design

I wanted to poster to look like a ghostly pirate treasure map. First, I search for an image in The Google for a photo of tea stained paper. I found one easily and downloaded the imaged into GIMP.

Next, I found an icon of an eye in the NounProject. In GIMP I altered the color of the eyes from black to brown. Next, I needed to draw the lines. In order to draw straight lines in GIMP select the paint brush tool, hold down shift key, and click the spot where you want to line to end (keep holding that shift key).

Next, I added the text to the poster. Last, I uploaded the image to Picnik in order to alter the tint of the color. I added a green color filter to achieve to the ghostly effect.

The Results

DS106 has produced a lot of fantastic designs for this assignment. Some examples can to found here, here and here. I did fret for a long time trying to get the lines in the design to be perfectly symmetrical. There are close, but not perfect. Overall, I am pleased with my work.