Shadows

Society of Illustrators 46th Annual of American Illustration, p228
London's Transport Musuem, Necdet Yilmaz, poster

This is a poster "designed for a London-wide campaign to remind citizens and visitors of the city's rich cultural heritage and current cultural output." I found it really interesting to study it in order to figure out all of the shadows and what they symbolized. My favorite was the little dog with the big dinosaur bone shadow. This is a very clever publicity poster since it will engage the viewer to continually look for hidden items each time they see it at transportation terminals throughout the city.
I had the impression of being a bird overhead watching two conflicting traffic flows. It feels like the people are pulling you out of the poster toward the bottom while the shadows pull you upward. This parallels the conflict between the historical and current events. It also makes my focus jump all around the poster. Great effect for interaction. The other thing that I notice is how the red bus seems to ground the whole composition. The big patch of red livens up the gray background and seems to anchor the little patches of color scattered throughout the poster. Imagine the poster without the red bus - not nearly as interesting!