Through the Looking Glass: CGI design in cinema

When I began blogging, I promised to write about all topics relating to style, design, and things that inspire me.

This has led to a bevy of posts on interior design, a handful on fashion, and a couple on art. Only one that I've done revolves around my very profession: graphic design. Most people underestimate or simply not realize the effect graphic design plays in their lives. But think about logos. Who doesn't see the round green circle with the mermaid in the middle and think, "Yay! Coffee fix!" or "I need my caramel mocha frappawhatever!" (I'm a tea drinker.) Or how a single symbol - the apple - has come to represent a billion dollar corporation. The colors, font, imagery, and other components of graphic design all affect our first impression of an object/storefront/movie/book/food.

THAT being said. I wanted to share some images that made an impression on me. The posters for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland have been released, and I am awestruck. And not just of the striking poster designs (I mean, come on, the Alice in Wonderland font is pretty fantastic), but also of the illustrative effects used on the characters. What's been done to the Red Queen and Tweedledee and Tweedledum is brilliant. I'm comfortable with programs like Photoshop and Illustrator, but I am so floored at what CGI can do. And look at the stills from the "set." This movie - not out until March 2010 - is going to be a feast for the eyes (in a very different way that Devil Wears Prada was). I urge you to look closely at the details that make up all this imagery. Far more brilliant than most movie posters out today.

Tim Burton's World

Notice the faces imposed on the flowers.

Not your ordinary "Alice in Wonderland" tale...

"The traditional tale has been freshened with a blast of girl power, courtesy of writer Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast). Alice, 17, attends a party at a Victorian estate only to find she is about to be proposed to in front of hundreds of snooty society types. Off she runs, following a white rabbit into a hole and ending up in Wonderland, a place she visited 10 years before yet doesn't remember."