Media

Let’s step into the way-back machine for a moment and take a look at White Flag, an Andy Stanley series from this past February.  I learned some valuable lessons working on the art for this series– particularly, sometimes the coolest idea and the best idea are not one and the same.

The premise (surrender) and imagery (a white flag) were pretty straightforward.  However, we’re always challenging ourselves to come up with fresh, unique designs rather than just take the easy way out.

Our initial inspiration came from papercraft; we liked the depth and dimensionality in the designs we were finding, as well as the unique symbolism found in the juxtaposition of the cut-out and the model itself.  It also allowed us to steer toward a design that was completely white and yet still interesting and dynamic.  Unfortunately, none of us are papercraft masters, so I needed to try and fake it using a 3D modeling program (Cinema 4D in this case).  Plus, this needed to look like white fabric, not white paper.

(CLICK THUMBNAILS FOR FULL-SIZE IMAGES)

As these compositions were pushed toward better and better execution, the general consensus was this: the idea was cool, the designs looked cool, but something was missing.  Whether it was lacking emotion or some sort of undefinable “it” factor, I wasn’t hitting the mark.  I thought that the flag had the potential to be a very strong symbol, but it was perhaps being overwhelmed by the text.  So I started to steer away from the papercraft idea and toward designs with a more prominent flag.

At this point I started asking myself some tough questions.  Did this design really need to be 3D?  3D modeling adds a lot of potential for visual interest and can allow you to do some unique and even mind-bending things; however, it’s not necessarily always the answer.  I hadn’t to this point allowed myself to explore other options.

I decided to strip the design down even further, and relied on negative space, contrast, spacing, and scale to pull the necessary emotion and meaning out of this design, rather then trying to be overly complicated.  The white flag was a strong symbol, and I wanted to maximize that potential.

This design, by a longshot, generated the most positive response.  It may be the simplest design we’ve ever done– honestly, I spent about 15 minutes on the composition itself– but in this case, simple was the way to go.