Barack Obama: The Inaugural Address
Design by Jen Wang
I saw this today in a shop window on the way home from work. The photo I took sucks, so take it from me: this small, clothbound, jacket-less book has the look and feel of a chapbook. It connotes urgency and is almost perfect for what it is. 
But...there's something about the stencil work that's just not right. Here's a closer view from my crappy photo:
Buy this book from Amazon.com
17 comments:
It looks like someone just clicked Live Trave in Illustrator and didn't take the time to fix it up. I like the concept, though.
That is nice. Better than using a photo. I see what you are saying about the quality of the stencil, but it honestly does not bother me much...
I think it's the shading that makes the illustration look wrong somehow.
his ear is sort of hanging off his head like a growth or something.
I think it's the expression. he looks awfully pensive about what's over there...
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You should check out this mailer from Sam Potts, a booklet of Obama's "A More Perfect Union" speech.
I think it's because of his super-hero mask
Jason: it does look like a mask, doesn't it -- the way it goes up and over the nose.
Jason: exactly! Or maybe storm shadow.
I believe it's a combination of the source picture (his expression look kind of ... um ... i don't know how to put this ... scared maybe) ) and the way they stylized the picture. They weren't consistent with the amount of detail they used. In this kind of image you don't have to use realistic lightning, e.g. he could have used a little highlight on our right side of the nose and a little black "outline" on the right part of the collar.
Also, I think he looks a bit young.
If they wanted to do something similar to Shepard Fairey's image, they failed miserably, and yes, I suppose I'm a Shepard Fairey fanboy.
On the plus side: very nice color and typography.
Is this a comic book?
My first thought was it looks just like Mao's Red Book, only its now in blue. Makes you think.
MarkT
TRuly, he looks annoyed, tired and sad : i understand, dont' you ?
There are a bunch of problems with the stencil. The ear is scarily deformed, the neck looks like a coke can is lodged in his throat, et cetera, et cetera. I doubt anyone in real life is looking though.
His ear looks funny because his ears ARE funny. If you look at political cartoons of him, they always have his ears sticking way out. That said, I think he's a very handsome man.
Not superhero, so much as crypto-islamo-pinko ninja.
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looks like he's got a back-up plan: if his political career doesn't work out, he can always join KISS...
I think it's more because the neck+chest part of the stencil isn't centered with his head. it looks like it's about to topple over to the right!
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