Now That's The Spirit

I've been following the Spirit marketing for a while now and wrote a column about it a while ago, click here. Up until today I've been underwhelmed by a lot of what I've seen and the trailer looked okay until Samuel L. Jackson started looking like a drag queen. At that point it became a mess and I feel sorry for all that are involved. It's a shame because I like Frank Miller, he's a great artist and his stories are fun. But I think in this case he's been given too much freedom and it's looking like crapola!

So today I ran across an interesting article and a great piece of art from the Art Institute of California-San Diego. Apparently Frank Miller and the marketers have teamed up with the Art Institute to do a nine piece series of the Spirit done by the students. Talk about fresh and creative!

Take a look at the first poster! I love the combination of Saul Bass and grit. It's eclectic, uneven and it feels amateur. I love it, for better or worse these students are going to put out posters that are going to be something we haven't seen in quite some time. They'll be either truly original; skewed slightly differently somehow; or all the above. Whatever they'll be they won't be the norm and perhaps that's what the Spirit needs.