Society of Illustrators 46th Annual of American Illustrations, p85
The New Yorker, Carter Goodrich, cover
The intent of this cover was to "comment on how vicious the sport of figure skating has become". Viciousness is not the message I got; competitiveness would be a better description. I found this design to be an great example of the design principles working together. Notice how the one little dark, clearly-defined puck balances against the mass of the children. The gradient at the top not only creates depth but provided an nice contrasting background for the magazine title. The use of white font allowed the entire composition to maintain an overall wintry feel. Any other font color choice would have completely changed the composition. The other interesting thing I noticed about the gradient is the subtle texture that was used created a haziness appropriate to winter and helped to integrate the trees in the background. Emphasis is clearly placed on the lone figure skater dressed in red and displaying a very evident expression of disgust. Rhythm is found in the carved circles on the ice. Even the group of children are surrounded by a circle of fairly evenly-spaced hockey sticks. Unity is seen in the proximity of the 3 groups - skater, children, and net. Unity is also found in the repetition of colors and in the repetitive "L" shape seen in the hockey sticks, the skater's bent leg, and the hockey net frame. The complimentary colors complete the harmonious composition by being of equal values.
2 comments:
That is a neat design. From what you were saying about the "L" shapes in the image...I noticed that they lead your eye up to the title mostly that way instead of always looking at the image on the front, you know what the title actually is.
Cathy, very nice analysis. I like this image a lot, the girl has a cute attitude, like she is telling the boys to go away until she is done with the ice rink!
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