Dystopian Design
I love dystopian future sci-fi movies. I think that in order to properly portray a dystopia you need to understand the present and design a world that accurately twists it. Not only add grime and soot, but project the results of social and environmental calamities on the present. In other words, you need to really know what the present is about in order to wreck it realistically.
I present to you two case studies in dystopian design. The first is the entire suite of commercial advertising from Children of Men. Witness ominous commercials for Homeland Security, happiness pills, creepy future-viagra, and other wonderful pieces of graphic/motion graphic design. Everything is extremely well thought-out and disturbing.
Next: An excellent article on the graphic design of Idiocracy. Some graphic design team had a field day with this one, taking logos that we all know and love and satirizing them in a most awesome manner. Behold the Carls’ Jr. Angry Star, the ST-A-8BUCKS logo, and “St. God’s Memorial Hospital”.
Dystopianism is pretty much a brand of satire. Man, it must’ve been fun to design these things. How do you get that job?
My Work in Print
Year Zero
Available from Samuel French and Amazon.com
Cowboy Versus Samurai
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2 Comments
me too, I love dystopian sci-fi premises. i’ve been bugging my friend to show me Children of Men.
I really like Dystopian stuff. I think it’s because I think pessimism is sometimes delicious. My favorite star wars movie was Empire.