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Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Designing the graphics for the Harry Potter movies
kottke.org: MinaLima (aka Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima) is the design studio that designs all of the graphics, signs, newspapers, decrees, posters, labels, maps, book covers, and packaging that you see in the Harry Potter movies.
I haven't been a Harry Potter fan for all too long. In fact, up until my junior year of high school I had never read a word or seen a single movie because it was a banned book in my house (crazy…yes I know). However, once I became a part of the Harry Potter fan base, I could not leave! One of the driving factors behind my loyalty to the brand was their attention to detail. When watching a Harry Potter movie one can almost see the man hours and articulate details that pop out of every set and background piece. Not a feather or wand is out of place. These advertisements and other graphic designs do just that for the world of Harry Potter. They allow the watcher to be sucked in and become a part of the fantasy realm around them by making the details believable. It is easy to believe witches and wizards may exist if there are layers and layers of prop storage as proof. I hope to see more of that attention to detail in all work both on the screen and the stage, because I believe it helps sell a production as real and tangible.
I found it pretty interesting that a graphic design firm handled all of these tasks opposed to a prop shop. I understand the necessity of graphic designers working on these projects because they have the necessary tools and skills but it was unexpected to me that they took on the role of a researcher or props master. They really had to know the story and also the overall production design for the show. Not only did they research the characters and plot, but the whole series of movies draws upon so many different time periods. There are gothic, contemporary, medieval, references, but they all come together to create the unexpectedly relatable world. Even with this amalgamation of time periods and the incorporation of magic and surrealism, the movies don't seem unaccessible, and I think the details, like the ones done by MinaLima, with their subtle ties to well known historical advertising, make the world of Harry Potter possible.
Wow I had no idea that one company did all of that! That's an insane amount of material to produce, but I guess it makes sense since Warner Brothers would only want to pay one company as opposed to multiple different companies. I think the reason this is such a big surprise is because the styles of things in the Harry Potter world are all so vastly different. It's amazing to think that the same people that created the Daily Prophet pages and book covers also created the wild and colorful Weasley Wizard Wheezes decorations. When you think about the amount of thought and detail that went into every Harry Potter film, it's really incredible. It's unclear from the article how big MinaLima is, but it must be a fairly large company in order to meet the sheer amount of demand created by each scene in each film. By looking at their website, it seems as though Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts are the only film series they've covered, which is peculiar. In that case, all of their money must be made from the Potter films, and the merchandise sales from fans.
This basically sounds like being a graphic designer for a society that doesn’t exist. It makes a lot of sense that to build a realistic world, you’d need to design as if the world is real. Come up with some standards to make it all seem cohesive, but also enough variety that is doesn’t feel like everything is the same. I also found it interesting how they changed the graphic design as the times changed in order to draw on periods of history that reflect what is happening the story. For example, I think that it is both interesting and unsurprising that they pulled from Soviet propaganda. Overall, I think this article shows just how much detail goes into creating a realistic world. Even if the audience won’t consciously notice every detail, people can notice when something seems off or fake even if they can’t put their finger on why, and I think that believable graphic design on the magazines, newspapers, and posters is one of those details that, even if people won’t consciously notice it, will play a major factor in how believable a world is.
4 comments:
I haven't been a Harry Potter fan for all too long. In fact, up until my junior year of high school I had never read a word or seen a single movie because it was a banned book in my house (crazy…yes I know). However, once I became a part of the Harry Potter fan base, I could not leave! One of the driving factors behind my loyalty to the brand was their attention to detail. When watching a Harry Potter movie one can almost see the man hours and articulate details that pop out of every set and background piece. Not a feather or wand is out of place. These advertisements and other graphic designs do just that for the world of Harry Potter. They allow the watcher to be sucked in and become a part of the fantasy realm around them by making the details believable. It is easy to believe witches and wizards may exist if there are layers and layers of prop storage as proof. I hope to see more of that attention to detail in all work both on the screen and the stage, because I believe it helps sell a production as real and tangible.
I found it pretty interesting that a graphic design firm handled all of these tasks opposed to a prop shop. I understand the necessity of graphic designers working on these projects because they have the necessary tools and skills but it was unexpected to me that they took on the role of a researcher or props master. They really had to know the story and also the overall production design for the show. Not only did they research the characters and plot, but the whole series of movies draws upon so many different time periods. There are gothic, contemporary, medieval, references, but they all come together to create the unexpectedly relatable world. Even with this amalgamation of time periods and the incorporation of magic and surrealism, the movies don't seem unaccessible, and I think the details, like the ones done by MinaLima, with their subtle ties to well known historical advertising, make the world of Harry Potter possible.
Wow I had no idea that one company did all of that! That's an insane amount of material to produce, but I guess it makes sense since Warner Brothers would only want to pay one company as opposed to multiple different companies. I think the reason this is such a big surprise is because the styles of things in the Harry Potter world are all so vastly different. It's amazing to think that the same people that created the Daily Prophet pages and book covers also created the wild and colorful Weasley Wizard Wheezes decorations. When you think about the amount of thought and detail that went into every Harry Potter film, it's really incredible. It's unclear from the article how big MinaLima is, but it must be a fairly large company in order to meet the sheer amount of demand created by each scene in each film. By looking at their website, it seems as though Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts are the only film series they've covered, which is peculiar. In that case, all of their money must be made from the Potter films, and the merchandise sales from fans.
This basically sounds like being a graphic designer for a society that doesn’t exist. It makes a lot of sense that to build a realistic world, you’d need to design as if the world is real. Come up with some standards to make it all seem cohesive, but also enough variety that is doesn’t feel like everything is the same. I also found it interesting how they changed the graphic design as the times changed in order to draw on periods of history that reflect what is happening the story. For example, I think that it is both interesting and unsurprising that they pulled from Soviet propaganda. Overall, I think this article shows just how much detail goes into creating a realistic world. Even if the audience won’t consciously notice every detail, people can notice when something seems off or fake even if they can’t put their finger on why, and I think that believable graphic design on the magazines, newspapers, and posters is one of those details that, even if people won’t consciously notice it, will play a major factor in how believable a world is.
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