Jurassic Park (1993)

"God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs."

"Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth."

Hi World,

  I decided to do a little research on this iconic design before I sat down to write today. I found a really great resource that tells the story behind the design of the Jurassic Park logo. (The Making of 7 Iconic Movie Posters) The logo used for the poster includes the original dinosaur skeleton that was used on the cover of Michael Crichton's novel, Jurassic Park. Pretty cool!

  Getting back to the poster...I wanted to talk a bit about the color palette of the poster today. Red is a statement color. Just think about bright red lipstick...statement. Putting red behind the skeleton gives this logo the punch it needs to stand out. Red also screams danger. Immediately, viewers are going to realize that these long-extinct dinosaurs are going to cause some serious problems. The use of color is such a powerful tool. It can be used to create so much emotion and depth in a very simple way. If the yellow, instead of the red, had been used behind the skeleton, it would have had a lighter, less dramatic feel to the composition. The danger would not have been as present. Yellow is a happy color that is a great compliment to the aggressive red that is covering a majority of this poster. The use of yellow, bordering the logo was a very smart design choice. If white had been used, it would have clashed and distracted from the text. With the text being the only white aspect of this design it really stands out. Viewers will see the beautiful, saturated logo, and then look to the text to decipher the meaning behind it all. This is truly an iconic poster. The use of color is one of the many reasons it is a great design.

Until Next Time,

P

PS...I have included a link to a Ted Talk by Chip Kidd, the designer behind the iconic T-Rex skeleton. He talks a bit about his process with this specific design.