{"id":91201,"date":"2015-10-27T11:15:08","date_gmt":"2015-10-27T15:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=91201"},"modified":"2015-10-27T12:47:13","modified_gmt":"2015-10-27T16:47:13","slug":"criterion-at-thirty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/27\/criterion-at-thirty\/","title":{"rendered":"Criterion at Thirty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CriterionDesigns_BBS_covers\"<\/a>I\u2019d always thought that designing new packaging for a classic film was like designing a jacket for a new edition of a well-known book: both are associated, in the popular imagination, with familiar, even beloved, graphics. If the designer strays too far from the original vision, the potential for public outcry is high. But where a book offers visual freedom\u2014our minds are free to imagine the scenes and the various characters\u2014a movie comes with a profusion of visual material that\u2019s not soon forgotten. There\u2019s the original theatrical poster, and then, of course, there\u2019s the very film itself, and all the iconic images we associate with it. For designers, translating a director\u2019s vision is hard enough the first time. How do you do it again<\/em>?<\/p>\n

The Criterion Collection is known for its impeccable taste in classic and contemporary films, and for the artful packaging that puts these films in a much-needed new light. Late last year, I sat down with their head art director of more than a decade, Sarah Habibi, and designer\/art director Eric Skillman, who were celebrating the recent publication of a book they\u2019d produced at breakneck speed in time for Criterion\u2019s thirtieth anniversary: Criterion Designs<\/em>, an illumination of their process in imagining some of the collection\u2019s most successful projects. It celebrates thirty years\u2019 worth of artwork and inspiration. A hefty and somewhat enigmatic silvery case barely hints at the varied work within. Skillman\u2019s restrained cover design features a single, striking die cut of the collection\u2019s instantly recognizable, leaning-C logo, created by veteran Pentagram designers Paula Scher and Julia Hoffmann during a rebranding in 2006. This C-shaped keyhole reveals Jason Polan\u2019s black-and-silver patterned endpapers, whose loose, line-drawn figures and objects exuberantly represent the characters and locales from any number of Criterion films.<\/p>\n

\"CriterionBook\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the book\u2019s joys is that you don\u2019t have to be a cinephile to appreciate the individuality and creative spirit brought to each Criterion package\u2014including never-before-seen, unused sketches and layouts. The designs aren\u2019t of a single, consistent style, and that variation allows Habibi and Skillman to keep the brand fresh and to have the freedom to seek out artists and designers who use a wide range of mediums and methods to match the tone of each film. Among my many<\/em> favorites are Yann Legendre\u2019s take on Louis Malle\u2019s Zazie dans le m\u00e9tro<\/em>\u2014inky black illustrations that sing against a flood of Parisian blue interrupted by stunning strokes of shocking orange; Rob Jones and Jay Shaw\u2019s figurative reinterpretation of the American flag for Robert Altman\u2019s gem, Nashville<\/em>; Leanne Shapton\u2019s playful ode to Noah Baumbach\u2019s gift for dialogue for her packaging of Kicking and Screaming<\/em>; and David Merveille\u2019s charming box set for The Complete Jacques Tati<\/em>, inspired by the great Pierre \u00c9taix\u2019s iconic, midcentury theatrical Tati posters.<\/p>\n

Habibi explained, \u201cThere are cases where everyone thinks of a movie in one way, but Criterion feels the director was aiming to say something different than what is typically thought. So for us, it\u2019s about repositioning the film to show that it\u2019s not actually the film that marketing people said it was all those years ago.\u201d Package design can do a lot of this work. Instead of traditional marketing meetings, Criterion holds what they call \u201cbrief meetings,\u201d in which the staff reviews a film\u2019s historical significance\u2014where it occurred in the director\u2019s career, its genre, the political climate, and so on. After a brief, they typically have two to three weeks for initial cover sketches. Habibi referred to this as \u201cthe heavy lifting period,\u201d in which they aim to nail down the look and style they\u2019re after. Once a cover direction has been selected, another three months is spent refining the artwork and carrying the visual language throughout the entire package so that the design feels truly unified. Design by committee, Habibi insisted, never produces the most inspired work, so to ensure that the designs don\u2019t become muddled by too many voices, they strive to keep the approval process as simple as possible and the meetings quite intimate with only the art department, the in-house producer, and the most senior staff weighing in.<\/p>\n

Habibi and Skillman walked me through the design process of packaging for three films included in Criterion Designs<\/em>. What follows are case studies in the inventive and thoughtful packaging that so defines their brand.<\/p>\n

\"CriterionDesigns_BBS_cover\"<\/a>\u201cAmerica Lost and Found: The BBS Story\u201d (box set)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard when we have to do a slipcase for multiple films because we\u2019ve got to somehow convey something about all<\/em> the films included using only one image\u2014unless you have some sort of unifying element, like a fantastic photo of a director,\u201d Habibi explained. \u201cIt can be hard to come up with a concept to hold it all together. For this one, we really wanted to get across that this was 1960s Hollywood, that it was time for a big change in how movies were made. These directors were really considered rebels, and we knew we needed to get that energy across.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes the art department will know they want the packaging to riff on an earlier poster or to a very specific aspect of a film. With the BBS box set, though, they weren\u2019t sure what they were after, so Habibi sent the project to two different designers. In return, she got a lot of American flags and handwritten type, all of it skillfully done but somehow too general; it was artwork that could have been paired with any number of their films. Habibi says that \u201cspecificity\u201d is key. She realized that with so many important films to highlight on the slipcase\u2014so many words<\/em>\u2014she had \u201ca type problem\u201d on her hands.<\/p>\n

She sought out their trusted \u201ctype guy,\u201d F. Ron Miller, who excels at re-creating period typography. He solved the problem with a wistful, 1960s-esque movie-house marquee photo illustration that announces all seven films \u201cnow showing\u201d in the box set. Miller lives in L. A. and was only too happy to drive around the city with a photographer friend in tow, shooting elements from older theaters\u2014those that had likely shown these films on their first runs. Miller\u2019s marquee concept appears in various guises throughout the interior packaging\u2014a photograph of an old, vacant ticket booth graces the cover of the booklet, for instance, and he designed new, \u201cweathered\u201d posters for each of the individual cases in the set. In everything, Miller managed to capture the decade\u2019s disconcerting sense of abandonment and self-rule. My favorite of the group may be the faux poster for Easy Rider<\/em>, which was created by Miller and the artist Fred Davis. They\u2019ve referenced the ubiquitous American-flag motif from Habibi\u2019s first rounds of sketches, but Davis found a way to reinvent the tired scheme by incorporating an open stretch of road and fraying the bottom edge of the collage as though it were printed on a pair of old Levis.<\/p>\n

\"CriterionDesigns_AllThatJazz3\"<\/a>All That Jazz<\/em> (1979)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a movie about dance, and there\u2019s something a little perverse about not using any<\/em> dance imagery \u2026 well, except for a single, behind-the-scenes shot hidden inside, under<\/em> the disk!\u201d Habibi assured me that she and Skillman hadn\u2019t wanted to disregard \u201cthe mind-blowing, physical achievements\u201d of the film\u2019s dancers by omitting them from the packaging, but they also didn\u2019t want to give new viewers the chance to dismiss the film as \u201cjust another dance movie.\u201d Instead, Habibi and Skillman repurposed the original poster art. (The gleaming marquee-lightbulb type also appears in the film\u2019s opening sequence.) Skillman describes it as \u201cgrandiose and bombastic.\u201d If you look closely at the original artwork, you can make out the metal scaffolding on which the type is hung. This was a conceptual choice: The film, fantasy based on elements of Bob Fosse\u2019s life and career, \u201cis not only about the spectacle,\u201d Skillman explains. \u201cIt\u2019s also about what\u2019s going on behind the scenes. It\u2019s about the artistic process. It\u2019s this attitude of always leave them smiling<\/em> showmanship as the medium for how to deal with much weightier topics like artistic legacy and death.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the final scene of the film, the people closest to the director gather in the audience for one final, unforgettable performance, sending him off with a rousing parody of the Everly Brothers\u2019 \u201cBye Bye Love\u201d (in this case, \u201cBye Bye Life<\/em>\u201d). The glitzy, outrageous display is in fact the director\u2019s own death onstage, and Skillman wanted \u201cto build on this contrast between the desperate farewell and the theatrical razzle-dazzle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CriterionDesigns_AllThatJazz\"<\/a>The show-stopping musical climax was what most inspired Skillman\u2019s art direction of Sean Freeman, the British illustrator they hired for the job of expertly merging texture and photography to build truly masterful digital lettering that rhymed with the seventies poster type. Freeman\u2019s flawless work appears throughout the film\u2019s booklet. With the help of Peter Becker, Criterion\u2019s President, Skillman mined the film for its most quotable lines, especially those that seemed the least<\/em> uplifting. Skillman\u2019s concept was to ironically \u201clight up\u201d the bleak quotes using Freeman\u2019s bright bulb letterforms. When it became apparent that those longer quotes would have been ill-suited to ornate, three-dimensional rendering, Skillman hit upon the idea of using the single words from the recurring, darkly comedic bit \u201cFive Stages of Grief,\u201d which not only would be less complicated to construct, but would also pack more punch. And they do\u2014Denial<\/em>, Anger<\/em>, Bargaining<\/em>, Depression<\/em>, and Acceptance<\/em> are each imagined in a unique lettering style and given double-page spreads in the interior booklet. They are luminous against the black pages\u2014black as night and as bright and lonesome as Broadway can be.<\/p>\n

\"CriterionDesigns_LouisXIV_cover\"<\/a>The Taking of Power by Louis XIV<\/em> (1966)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cRoberto Rossellini made this incredibly straight piece,\u201d Habibi explained, \u201cthat is more like a documentary of the life of Louis XIV and his courts, that doesn\u2019t have any feeling of romanticism or melodrama. All the imagery from the film is quite stiff.\u201d Early cover design ideas included stills from the film, but as Skillman noted, the stills alone oddly didn\u2019t appropriately capture the film\u2019s measured tone. A film\u2019s narrative typically provides hints for cover designs, but Rossellini\u2019s film doesn\u2019t follow a traditional narrative.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like there to be a reason for everything on our covers,\u201d Habibi said, \u201cand our type choices are purposeful. I was doing some image research from home, and I discovered that Louis XIV had commissioned his own typeface! Before this, typefaces had been mainly calligraphic, but Louis XIV, being the Sun King, had someone create a typeface of Roman capitals and lowercase figures that was beautifully mapped out on a grid. It had never been done this way before.\u201d Habibi further discovered that a handful of people had since created a digital face based on this late seventeenth-century gem, but most were missing the character of the hand-drawn original, so the Criterion art department ended up creating the film\u2019s cover typography directly from the refined and well-proportioned Versailles specimen. \u201cThe film,\u201d Habibi said, \u201ccaptures Louis at a time when he\u2019s moving in a much more scientific direction in his thinking, and so this linear design direction paired well with Rossellini\u2019s approach, which was so formal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CriterionDesigns_LouisXIV_RomainDuRoi\"<\/a>Taking cues from early alphabets can lend incredible authenticity and character to all design projects, though often the found alphabets are frustratingly incomplete, and in this case Habibi had to draw her own capital W<\/em> in order to complete the word POWER<\/em>. Sometimes a project clearly calls for what is termed a \u201ctype treatment\u201d: strong type, working without the support of images, can often do all the important work of setting a scene that photographs or illustrations (or in this case, film stills) have only been able to hint at. Habibi clearly relished the opportunity to create this final design, informed by the hand of Louis XIV\u2019s typographer, and it makes for a handsome and appropriately spare package\u2014one that is different from so many other projects included in Criterion Designs<\/em>. As a fellow graphic designer, I too find deep satisfaction in projects that allow me to work hand in hand with a typographer or master printer from decades or even centuries earlier. By studying the subtle differences that distinguish one letterform from another and by discovering the common architecture of each form, one is able to create additional characters that blend seamlessly with these much earlier letters. (This is something, for instance, I\u2019ve been doing for The Paris Review<\/em>: working with a scan of our midcentury, lead-type masthead as a guide and a digital cut of Garamond Premier Pro, the magazine\u2019s text face, for reference, I\u2019ve been slowly crafting a complete set of Paris Review<\/em> letterforms.)<\/p>\n

When our discussion ended, Habibi led me back through the office. On the way, I glimpsed giant posters of some of their most enduring artwork and shelves containing numerous Criterion titles. Like book jackets, these Blu-ray and DVD covers are destined to spend much of their lives spine out. \u201cAs a company we definitely care about the bookshelf and collections,\u201d Habibi affirmed. \u201cPeople are living with these objects for a long time.\u201d In the art department, she pointed out a large shared wall punctuated by multiple layouts from various designers for new projects now in the works\u2014proof that there is never time to rest when it comes to marrying good design and ground-breaking cinema, and that the packaging for a truly noteworthy film can be nearly as important as what lies within.<\/p>\n

Charlotte Strick is art editor of <\/em>The Paris Review and one half of the design team Strick&Williams.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019d always thought that designing new packaging for a classic film was like designing a jacket for a new edition of a well-known book: both are associated, in the popular imagination, with familiar, even beloved, graphics. If the designer strays too far from the original vision, the potential for public outcry is high. But where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":384,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[894],"tags":[19929,7161,4664,19429,216,82,19928,79,228,19925,19923,7730,2308,19924,19926,6077,19930,19927,436,2649],"class_list":["post-91201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-design","tag-all-that-jazz","tag-alphabet","tag-bob-fosse","tag-criterion-collection","tag-design","tag-easy-rider","tag-eric-skillman","tag-film","tag-illustration","tag-jacques-tati","tag-jason-polan","tag-louis-malle","tag-noah-baumbach","tag-pentagram","tag-pierre-etaix","tag-robert-altman","tag-roberto-rossellini","tag-sarah-habibi","tag-typography","tag-yann-legendre"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCriterion at Thirty by Charlotte Strick<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"October 27, 2015 \u2013 I\u2019d always thought that 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