Poster design from Lippa Pearce
One of the sharpest poster design executions I’ve seen. It’s from Lippa Pearce who are now Pentagram partners. Excellent typography mixed with engaging photography.
Found via Ben’s Noisy Decent Graphics. According to Ben, the poster is the work of Harry Pearce (half of the Lippa Pearce team).
Do you know anything more about this design?
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26 appreciated comments on “Poster design from Lippa Pearce”
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Well, my first visit on your blog, after your visit on mine. I am impressed.
About this poster…
What can I say? I have mixed feelings. The design is indeed excellent, but I am not sure about the message. This is what I’d like to know. What is the purpose of this poster?
There’s a little bit about Lippa Pearce over on the We Made This Blog at the moment:
http://wemadethis.typepad.com/we_made_this/2007/02/lippa_pearce_at.html
Robbing the world’s children of their childhood one gun at a time.
Hello!Very nice blog you have!!That sentence from Mao is also quite a find!:-)Congrats!
Very effective!
Congrats on being Thermal’s 3000th comment!
Thanks for that link Richard, good stuff.
Belinha, feel free to stop by with compliments anytime you like.
Pinksy, it was an honour to have Chris feature me. He’s building a nice following.
Sorry Mihaela, I just recovered your comment from my spam list (I use Akismet).
You ask a good question – what is the purpose? I’d love to know what the small text reads for this poster. I’m sure there’s a call to action in there.
That picture made me stop and look at it for a minute. Kind of a blank stare really as I didn’t know what to think about it. Very eye catching though. Like another poster said, what does that small text in the corner say?
Hi James, thanks for stopping by. It was me who wanted to know what text was in the lower right corner. I made the post.
Maybe it’s me, but I think it is clever for clever’s sake. It didn’t connect on an emotional level with me. Just clever.
I think Webduck’s comment, “Robbing the world’s children of their childhood one gun at a time.” would make a more complelling headline.
Ed
Ed, I think the main text has to be large to draw people in towards the text in the lower right, which is why a single word works for me. It can be large enough to read from distance.
It’s a good phrase from webduck, and it’d be interesting to see a what other ideas Lippa Pearce had for this. Still, I do really enjoy the design.
If the headline is big enough to read from a distance then what chance does the real message have in the mice type? At least have the organization identity big enough so that if all you see is that , the photo and the line then at there is some connection. The design makes it very difficult to get the message and so it fails as a communication piece from my perspective. It just provokes thought but offers no hope.
I see your point Ed.
You know, sometimes I get caught up too much in appearance, putting effectiveness second.
It’s something I’m working on.
It’s a good poster and a nice observation. It is emotive as it feels quite brutal. Why should the poster offer hope? “Robbing the world’s children of their childhood one gun at a time.” is incredibly cheesy and is far too long for a headline.
It’s a kid with a massive gun. An infact. It says it all. I haven’t seen much from Dominick and co for a while, I ope they get on OK at Pentagram, its a tough place to be and very expensive for companies once they join. best of luck to them.
They did a great packs for wart remover for bots years ago that’s in a smile in the mind..have a look in that book for some great ideas and some more work by LP.
Why should the poster offer hope? BECAUSE if there is no hope what’s the point. If the poster doesn’t offer a solution then it’s just editorial comment, and I don’t think that is the intent – let’s ask the author if they are listening.
Also, I had no idea there were regulations for how long a headline could be. I’ve been a designer for 25 years and I’ve never heard that one.
Ed
Of course there isnt a limit on the lengths if headline copy. But how many long headlines do you remember?*
I think Bill Bernback got it right with ‘lemon’ for VW.
*Actually I do remember one “at 70 mph all you hear is the ticking of the clock” for Rolly Royce, by Davild Ogilvy. And that wasn’t cheesey!
I don’t think you have to remember headlines for them to be effective. I just have to get it in the moment. let’s face it we all have our favorites, but since we are in the business we are bias towards creative. We WILL remember an Ogilvy or George Lois. I think the public would be hard pressed to remember a headline from last week. You’ve got to hit them now with a message that isn’t forgetable, provides a call to action and contact info. We’re in the communications business. My favorite quote (author unknown) is: “It isn’t good creative unless it sells.”
Sometimes, an ONG’s job (you can replace “an ONG’s job” with “a poster’s job”) is not to offer hope or solution to problems, but to raise awareness of specific problems so that – hopefully – you and I put pressure on our governments. Ultimately, we are the ones who have the solution to problems like this, where an ONG can only push the issue into our foreminds… If you and I don’t think about the issue (the poster’s job) and shout about it (our responsibility) we can be certain that our governments won’t do a thing about it either… Wars are very profitable business…
“It isn’t good creative unless it sells.” was David Ogilvy, the guy who wrote ‘at 70 mph all you hear is the ticking of the clock’.
Memorable sells.
Hey David,
That poster is really awesome. Its simple and captivating minimal and clean. I really like the look, the meaning and the message. Thanks for sharing.
I like that quote, Lee, about the ticking clock. Very apt.
Chad, no worries mate. Glad you like it, too.
I would just like to respond to ED. I mean come on if you really think that this piece fails then you don’t understand design. First off, the comment about WEBDUCKS post. The fact that INFANTry, hence the infant soldier. How you think that webducks comment would be better? I mean that one word says it all, no need for the long route,THINK why wouldyou bother it get the MESSAGE across with conviction. Lee Newham is bang on, ITS BRUTAL. Now we have your attention.
Secondly, you say it just provokes thought. What else do you want? Thats the aim of the poster, AWARENESS!
Thirdly, offering hope would be pointless and your still missing the POINT. The poster is raising awareness about how INFANTS are lost in a war that they will die in from a very early age. What could the artists possibly want you to think about? How lucky we are, how much other people in this world live for one thing how these INFANTS are being exploited.
Now i seem to think that your contradicting yourself a weee bit.
Qoute “I don’t think you have to remember headlines for them to be effective. I just have to get it in the moment.”
Quote “You’ve got to hit them now with a message that isn’t forgetable, provides a call to action and contact info.”
So out of how many millions of posters you have seen in your 25 years, YOUR GOING TO FORGET THIS ONE? DOUBT IT! The fact that we are engage in conversation proves my point. Ofcorse you have to get your audience to remember it otherwise if they dont then thats where the communication has failed. But I bet in years to come on a brief or something you’ll go AH WAIT I REMEMBER A POSTER ABOUT INFANT SOLDIERS, IT WAS SO HARD HITTING AND JUST GRABBED MY ATTENTION BECAUSE IT WAS SO BRUTAL AND TRUTH.
THIS POSTER IS ONE OF THE BEST IVE SEEN, WE AREN’T ON ABOUT YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPER HERE, PEOPLE WILL REMEMBER THIS POSTER FOR 10S OF YEARS.
LEE
I think that what I have said is fair and truth. I also like to mention that I think that the relationship is between the typography and image reinforce each other. but the type by itself is strong enough to make any half minded person to think about the message its sending. And if you seen that photograph on its own, YOUR telling me you wouldn’t take five minutes to think about why or how INFANTS become enrolled in a war that isn’t their war, ITS THEIR FATHERS FATHERS WAR.
I was at a talk given by Pearce a few months back, he explained the idea behind this poster, or rather the reason behind it. The idea is quite clear. However I can’t remember a word he said. That’s generally the way with design talks, you come away all inspired but remember very little.
great website really enjoyed searching lippa pearce :) so much help from this amazing website :D keep up the good work!!