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The Empowering Aesthetic

Things can be made to look either empowering or intimidating/stand-off-ish/too formal/too solid. Greco-Roman inspired architecture is intimidating (think federal buildings, banks, courts, etc.). Design of DIY album covers, DIY movie posters, some restaurants, lots of websites, can be fun, with some hand drawn elements or other non-slick/non-computer made looking design elements, bright colors, and that look can be both inviting & empowering. Empowering as in: that looks fun, easy to do & maybe fun to do, I want to try it. I guess in some situations you want a combination of the two approaches.

Just some stuff to think about when you are designing posters, DVD packaging, web site for your indie filmmaker non-profit, whatever.

By the way, I am not an expert on design. These are just my amature graphic & packaging designer observations. Stuff that I am thinking about while thinking about the Date Number One DVD packaging.

- Sujewa

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