Visual Communication Design History

Just like the name of this poster would suggest, the design is all about the use of negative space.  The negative space of the shark's mouth also makes the shape of a person's foot and leg.  This is a great way to utilize the negative space within the piece creating powerful imagery.  The color palette is very minimal with only two shades of blue.  The color is in flat shapes with no depth.  All of the detail of this piece relies on the utilization of the negative space which is a huge component of the flat design style. Alazet, B. (2012). Negative Space  [Poster]. Behance. https://www.behance.net/gallery/4964871/Illustrations-Espace-ngatif-Negative-space

This poster design for the character Omen from the video game "Valorant" is extremely similar to the very first piece I analyzed on this blog, a movie poster for "Batman." This is a another great example of the flat design style with its minimal color palette, emphasis on geometric shapes, and lack of depth.  The shapes are laid out in flat swatches of color mainly consisting of straight lines.  There is no real depth to the piece but rather a mock drop shadow coming down in another flat swatch of color.  The designer chose to use a simple sans-serif font for the character name "Omen."  The white typography against the dark background pops, but the minimal style of the font doesn't make it distracting. Meraoumia, C. (2020). Valorant Posters [Poster]. Behance. https://www.behance.net/gallery/108204973/valorant-posters?tracking_source=search_projects%7Cflat+poster

 I'm feeling drawn to examples of the flat style that feature an emphasis on character design.  This design by Radostina Georgieva feels similar to the last piece I analyzed by Leena Kisonen with the people, fun color palette, and great use of negative space.  An element I really enjoy about this design is how the negative space ties different parts of the characters together.  For example, the black of the background also forms the shirt and hair of the man and woman in the middle of the composition.  The white of the middle woman's skin then also forms the stool she's sitting on along with the white pants of the woman next to her.  While there are some fun pops of pink and yellow, the rest of the palette is more neutral and muted.  There is no depth to any of the shapes either.   Georgieva, R. (2020). Find Your Community [Graphic Illustration]. Dribble. https://dribbble.com/shots/11466243-Find-your-community

This design is created by artist Leena Kisonen.  Most of her work falls under the flat design style with a fun twist featuring her fun and vibrant color palettes.  Although the color palette for this work doesn't consist of neutrals, it features vibrant tones that all match nicely and create a unified design.  There is no depth to this piece of work with it being made up of flat geometric shapes.  I thought her utilization of negative space was unique.  Rather than using a shape of color to create the face of the woman, negative space fills it place allowing the viewers eye to fill in the gap on its own.  Kisonen, L. (2017). Apple Delivery [Digital Illustration]. Dribble. https://dribbble.com/shots/3939374-Apple-Delivery

This Storm Trooper poster is from the "Star Wars Promo" collection created again by designer Ryan M. Russell.  Just like how all the posters within his "Cities" collection had the same format, the pieces within the Star Wars collection have their own format that they follow.  Each poster features a plain colored background with "Star Wars" written across the top.  A different character can then be seen on each design.  This specific poster features a storm trooper.  I chose to analyze this specific piece from the collection because of how much negative space is being utilized in the design.  Since storm troopers are white, Ryan created this design by having a white background and creating the storm troopers face only by adding simple flat shapes of color.  There is no depth to the piece and the color palette is about as minimal as it gets only using black, white, and gray. M. Russel, R. (2011). Star Wars Promo   [Poster]. Behance. https://www.beha...

This Las Vegas poster design is from the "Cities" collection created by designer Ryan M. Russell.  This collection features posters designed for cities across the world and they all have the same format of only two colors with the name of the city then being displayed with black or white text.  I really enjoy the way Ryan utilizes negative space to create the details within the posters.  Specifically in this Las Vegas poster, the negative space creates many of the details that can be seen in the architecture of The Strat.  The purple used to create the rest of the building is laid out in flat geometric shapes with no depth to them.  The font chosen to spell out "Las Vegas" is a very thin and minimal sans-serif.  Between the font choice and color choice for the text, it creates a very minimal title that matches the rest of the poster perfectly to create the overall flat design style. M. Russel, R. (2011). Cities [Poster]. Behance. https://www.behance.net/gal...

"Novem Vitae Cattus," which translates to "The Cat's Nine Lives," is the title of this illustration created by artist Damian Orellana.  This is another great example of the flat design style with the minimal color palette, use of negative space, and lack of depth.  The negative space in this piece is utilized to create the "shadow" on the cat's legs.  The shapes that make up the cat are simple and flat with no harsh outlines.  The color palette is all muted tones making it feel unified and simple. Orellana, D. (2019). Novem Vitae Cattus [Digital Illustration]. Dribble. https://dribbble.com/shots/6087406-Novem-Vitae-Cattus/attachments/11245557?mode=media

This poster design is a collection of smaller images that artist Sebastian Abboud formed into a grid making what feels like a digital quilt.  All of the designs are created by flat shapes of color with minimal detail.  One of the main characteristics of the flat style is the lack of depth which this piece is a great example of.  There is very little line work with most of the details being created by the negative space of the background color as seen with the lines between the fingers, the mouth of the person, and the ear of the elephant.  The color palette is simple, mainly consisting of different shades of complementary colors blue and and orange. Abboud, S. (2023). Daily Vectors [Poster]. Dribble. https://dribbble.com/shots/21351289-Daily-vectors

 The flat design style was initially seen in graphical user interfaces before it expanded into other realms of design.  These interfaces included things such as websites, web applications, and mobile apps.  This collection of icons by designer Vaisakh Gs is a great example of the types of designs that were seen with the origin of flat style designs.  The shapes of the icons are very minimal made up of solid lines.  The color palettes is very simple which is beneficial with icons because they ca easily be recolored to match the theme of any websites or applications they might be used in.  There is also no depth to the icons with the colors being done in flat swatches inside the minimal shapes. Gs, V. (2022). "Icons" [Graphic Design]. Dribble. https://dribbble.com/shots/19468714-Icons

 This piece is a minimalist reinvention of the poster for the 2015 movie "High-Rise." The color palette is very simple with the composition of the poster being created with only blue and yellow.  The blue rectangles are supposed to represent the different floors of a skyscraper with the negative space of the yellow background separating each floor.  The blue rectangles are completely flat areas of color with no depth in the entire design.  The sans-serif font used for the text is very sleek and minimal.  It mirrors the geometric lines of the skyscraper and works very well with the flat style. Khatsumi. (2019). "High-Rise" [Poster]. Dribble. https://dribbble.com/shots/6172122-Movie-Geometric-Posters

 "September" is another still life created by artist Meghdeep Sarkar.  While the negative space used in the last piece I posted of Sarkar's, along with most of the other pieces I have analyzed so far, is used to create one of the main basic shapes of the design, the negative space in "September" is used to create the highlights of the design.  The shadows within the piece are flat shapes of navy with the base color of the oranges, bowl, and leaf being an orange.  Once again, Sarkar uses a simple color palette in this piece that feels neutral.  The dark navy used for the shadows rather than stark black works well in creating this neutral palette because it isn't too overly harsh against the orange and yellow used in the piece. Sarkar, M. (2021). September  [Graphic Illustration]. Dribble. https://dribbble.com/shots/15247899-SEPTEMBER

This piece is a digital illustration made by the artist Meghdeep Sarkar.  I was drawn to Sarkar's work because I like the twist they do on simple still lifes by using the flat design style.  The blue background is used to form the basic shape of the tea cup with the white being used to add simple details.  Brown is the last color used to create the tea within the cup.  The color palette is very simple and fairly neutral, especially since the blue used is more mid-toned rather than bright.  There are simple darker shapes forming the shadows of the cup, but it's done with flat shapes of color rather than traditional shading.  This is another example of a flat style piece that uses more curved lines than straight, but there is repetition and a minimal style behind the curved lines. Sarkar, M. (2021). Tea  [Graphic Illustration]. Dribble. https://dribbble.com/shots/15123947-TEA

This slushie icon is part of a bigger rebranding for 7-Eleven which included a new logo and multiple new graphics.  This slushie design falls under the new collection of graphics. The main characteristic that stuck out to me about the slushie graphic was the great use of negative space.  The white background was used to create the details of the cup and the swirl detail of the slushie drink.  The color palette isn't neutral but uses the standard bright colors associated with the 7-Eeven brand including green, orange, and red.  While the color palette isn't neutral, which is typically associated with the flat style, the color is used to create flat shapes of color with no depth to them. Gozzip, J. (2021). 7-Eleven Rebrand [Graphic]. Behance. https://www.behance.net/gallery/116903781/7-Eleven-Rebrand

 "Man In Fog" is a great example on how to use negative space within an illustration.  Both the man and the fog, as its namesake would suggest, are formed using the same white shapes, most notably over the man's face.  It is simple yet effective with the only characterizing detail being the man's eyes looking through the cloud of fog.  The negative space also forms the fog and the man's left hand.  The negative space of the darker blue in the piece then connects to create smaller details on the man's jacket and hair.  I like how the white clouds bleed into the white border of the art as well.  The color palette is fairly bright, especially with the yellow and lighter blue, but it is still minimal and cohesive.  Aside from the use of negative space and minimal color palette, another element of the flat style seen in this work is the absence of depth.  While there are curved lines in the piece, all of the flat shapes still have a simple and geo...

 This piece is yet another minimalistic take on the "Iron Man" movie poster.  This is another poster created by artist Adam Thompson, who also made "The Incredibles" poster I shared in my last post.  In the PowerPoint discussing the different styles of graphic design, an Iron Man poster was one of the examples given for the flat style.  I wanted to share this iteration of the poster because while it is also done in the flat style, the approach is pretty different. The negative space of the yellow background is used to create the front part of Iron Man's helmet.  The color palette is simple with the use of primary colors used to form the flat shapes of the poster.  The shapes are also mainly composed of straight lines.  Thompson chose to use a very similar font to the one used on the original "Iron Man" poster, but eliminated the 3D effect it had.  The lines of the font are also slightly more elongated and less bulky than the original title which s...

The thing that really stuck out to me from this artist's version of "The Incredibles" poster is the big use of negative space.  Most of the superhero suit is formed using the negative space of the blue background.  Flat shapes of color are then used to create the face and other details of the suit.  The color palette is simple with blue and black being the main focus.  While some curved lines are used, the majority of the pieces, including the black details on the suit are created with straight lines.  The font is the same one that was used on the original Incredibles poster, but it matches the flat style very well with its minimal style and elongated straight lines. Thompson, A. (2012) The Incredibles [Poster]. Behance. https://www.behance.net/gallery/3930247/Pixar-Minimalist-Movie-Posters

This piece is different from the other ones I have analyzed so far because its utilization of more curved lines.  The geometric nature of flat style is still maintained with the the way the piece has your eyes moving in a straight line by following the the pen and ink coming form the pens down to the female figures.  The color palette is minimal, neutral, and all within the same color family.  The dark brown used for the ink of the pens blends nicely with the beige, red, and orange in the piece as opposed to if the artist had used a pure black.  Negative space is utilized to create the dark brown parts of the female figures along with the beige background to create the skin tone of the women and bodies of the pens. Garofano, C. (2016) "Stile" [Graphic Illustration]. Behance. https://www.behance.net/gallery/43874417/Stile-for-Dieciparole-Italianism

 I couldn't resist talking about this Pikachu poster!  I think he looks so cute and I really like the artist's choice to use the flat graphic design style for this piece.  The use of negative space in tandem with the added details to create Pikachu's body works very well.  This poster has no depth which is one of the main characteristics of the flat style.  The blocky font choice matches the geometric nature of this style well.  The added texture over the whole poster reminds me more of the grunge graphic design style, but I would say the main design style being used is flat.  It's cool to see how different elements of other design styles can be subtly mixed in with others though. Boldyriev, D. (2016) Pikachu [Poster]. Dribble. https://dribbble.com/shots/2864434-Poster-Pikachu

 This piece is a fan art illustration of one of the characters from Netflix's "Squid Game."  This piece is different from the first two I have analyzed because of its heavier use of curved lines.  Although there are curved lines, the illustration still contains a lot of straight lines which coincides with the flat graphic design style.  Negative space is used nicely in this piece as well between the teal background also forming the jacket, and the beige background filling in the feet of the character.  The number "067" is written on the character's jacket in a very blocky sans serif font matching the other straight lines in the illustration.     Semenova, D. (2021)  Squid Game [Graphic Illustration]. Dribble. https://dribbble.com/shots/16690162-Squid-Game/attachments/11729794?mode=media

The flat graphic design style is all about minimalism, and it doesn't get much simpler than this poster created by Morgan Allan Knutson. Between a couple white shapes and the negative space of the pink background, Knutson was able to create a very simple yet effective image of a thumb drive.  This imagery is created using entirely flat shapes with absolutely no depth in the entire design.  The shapes are also mainly made up of straight lines with the only curves being the rounded corners where the straight lines meet.  The very minimal text that says "RIP 2007" is typed out using a clean sans serif font that lends it self perfectly to the minimal style of flat graphic design work. Knutson, M. (2013). RIP 2007  [Poster]. Dribble. https://dribbble.com/shots/1122674-RIP-2007

One of the examples of flat design provided in the PowerPoint going over the different graphic design styles throughout history, was a reimagined version of the Iron Man movie poster created by Moritz Adam Schmitt.  While the Iron Man poster was part of his "Marvel" collection,  I found this reimagined version of Batman under his "DC" collection. Just like the Iron Man poster, this Batman piece is another great example of the flat graphic design style.  The color palette is simple sticking to only a few colors along with different shades of each. The negative space from the background is utilized to form half of Batman's mask.  Other than the yellow circle for Batman's emblem, only straight lines are used throughout the design.  There is no depth to the piece other than the signature drop shadow that can be seen in many flat graphic design pieces.  The font used to spell "Batman" is a very simple sans serif which ties in perfectly to the modern, ge...