Friday, November 29, 2013

AIFF 2013: This Year's Logo Way Too Busy




I like the curve of the red line that lists the venues.  In fact I like individual parts.  I like the snowflake incorporated in the film reel.  I like the colors. I like the pieces of the snowflake in the bittersweet shimmer bar on the right. (I couldn't think of a name for the color so I looked it up.) But as a whole, this logo is way too busy for me. It's like three different logos squeezed into one. My eye is scattered into all different directions.  Lettering is horizontal, vertical, and curved.  And that photo is jarring; it doesn't fit in with the rest.  Why is the curve on the left cut off?  Why does it say Freeze Frame? It's the top phrase in the largest font. Yes, I know it's a film term, but what exactly does it mean here?   It already has the word 'freezing' in it. I'm sorry, this is my least favorite of all the festival logos.  

Tell me I'm wrong and I'm missing something here.

I originally had thought that maybe this was the logo for this year because it was on the AIFF website first:


But it's just the poster for the Family Fun Films.  This one is kind of cute and whimsical.  

I also see that Lion Ark is listed for the Family Fun Films.  I saw it LA, and I think it's a fine film, but there's some pretty graphic violence against animals shown.  That PG-13 rating has a reason.  

It does appear that Lion Ark shows after the Family Fun part of the Festival. Don't bring the younger kids to this one.  There's a lot all the kids would like about this, but parts that would be disturbing to the younger ones.  At least I hope that the kids aren't so used to violence that they wouldn't be disturbed. 


Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks the logo is cumbersome.  





I found this edited version on the website of one of the films in competition.  They actually had to change the lettering (the actual logo has the date where it says Anchorage International Film Festival.) And they removed the reddish venue list that looped around on the black.

As I said, there are several logos in this logo and this one works for me - just needs a year and dates and it would be fine. 



And even Festival Genius used this portion of the logo for one of the films in the AIFF.



If different people independently find they have to edit the logo to fit, there's something wrong.  I hope the logo approvers take note for when they pick next year's logo. 

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