Desginer Matt Needle’s alternate movie posters for 3 of Alfred Hitchcock’s most famous film seem both timeless and utterly fresh.
Good design is as little design as possible,” states Dieter Rams’ 10 commandments of Good Design. While there is no one single metric that differentiates “good design” and “bad design”, if you pay attention to contemporary design, cross-referenced with how we tend to interact with the world around us – speaking as a Westernerer living in an Information Age society – a sense of “the good” in design does begin to emerge, no matter what branch or offshoot you’re looking at.
One of those design trends you can’t help but ignore is minimalism. Writing about minimalist graphic design for Visme, author Orana Velarde begins “Minimalism is a visual concept that never goes out of style. It has been around for 60 years and it’s still relevant today. The main idea in minimalist design is to say more by showing less. Minimalist design is clean, crisp and timeless.”
She’s not wrong. Minimalism is the visual design trend that just won’t die. In recent years, we’ve seen everything from minimalist interior design trends to minimalist web design. And while it’s not necessarily the purpose of this blog to act as arbiter of good taste or gatekeeper of good design, it’s hard to argue that good design is minimalist design, in 2020, at least to some extent. While we find that some minimalist design is snooty and sometimes reeking of privilege, we feel like each design element should at least serve some function. We’re not here to way in on the “busy vs. clean” debate, or “ornate vs. austere,” but it does seem like in design and art, that the creator should have an idea of what they’re trying to achieve, and should ask themselves if some detail serves that vision or not. “Edit ruthlessly,” as advised by the fashion designers. “Don’t be precious with your art,” recommend the novelists.
This is the long way of saying that designer Matt Needle’s minimalist movie posters for three of Alfred Hitchcock’s most famous movies are good design, by almost any metric you’d care to throw at them.
Look at this gorgeous alternate movie poster for Vertigo, for instance. Needle plays up the negative space in what seems to us a very modern way. The visual information is reduced to the bare minimum, and shunted out of the way while still communicating the relevant details. A simple ombre gives from turquoise to indigo gives the impression of sunset. The visuals are iconic, showcasing the Golden Gate Bridge of Vertigo‘s notorious San Francisco setting, the hatted silhouette of Jimmy Stewart and the distant, ghostly mystery of Madeline looming in the distance. If you’ve seen Vertigo, there’s a good chance you’d recognize Needle Design’s movie poster even without the text.
That’s not where the good design stops, however. Otherwise, this would just be a good movie poster – always nice, but not necessarily that exciting. If you look closely, however, you’ll notice a faint texture of concentric circles – a subtle nod to Vertigo‘s iconic set design. Combined with a slight distressed, grunge effect to give the poster a more analog feel, and we’re left with a thoroughly modern design which remains rooted in the original.
That, to us, is one of the commandments of good design that references the past, and the purpose of this blog in general. We must know the past, and understand it, to choose what to keep and what to get rid of.
Which seems as close to a minimalist mantra as one could hope to get.
Needle Design’s alternate movie poster for North by Northwest is similarly stunning.
The one for Psycho is also a thing of beauty.
Needle Design’s minimalist movie posters are things of such beauty, you want to hang them on the wall so you can admire them 24/7. The good news is, you can! The Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho movie posters are all available as prints from their Bigcartel shop.
We’ve fallen for Needle Design’s work in a big way. They’ve applied their minimalist aesthetic to other cinephilic subject matter, like a series of portraits of Audrey Hepburn and another of famous directors. They’ve also got ’60s Pop Art-style original art, design, and illustration,
Full disclaimer, it could be that Needle Design’s aesthetic just so happen to pretty much identically mirror our own. We are freaks for all things distressed and textured, when they’re well-done. Their sometimes soft or bruised color pallets, like the Vertigo poster or the faded rose of the Ladybird alternate movie poster, drive us to distraction. We’re also huge fans of minimalist 60s art and design. So, it just might be that we’re the perfect customers for Needle Design. Or they just might be stunningly good design.
You be the judge.
Needle Design
@needledesign
ig: @needledesign
MattNeedle.co.uk
NeedleDesign.co.uk
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