The King Stay the King
October 25, 2013 2:14 PM Subscribe
The Wire Poster Project features posters for each of the epigrams preceding each episode. Benefits go the Baltimore Urban Debate League.
Good intentions and all but well, I couldn't pick any one of them if I wanted to.
posted by opsin at 2:21 PM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by opsin at 2:21 PM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
I feel like all of these posters were automatically generated through a script or something. All of the designs seem to be completely interchangeable and don't have anything to do with the actual content of the specific quote, even in terms of emphasis and font choice.
posted by burnmp3s at 2:27 PM on October 25, 2013 [7 favorites]
posted by burnmp3s at 2:27 PM on October 25, 2013 [7 favorites]
"A Man Must Have a Code": Coming to a dorm room wall near you!
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 2:35 PM on October 25, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 2:35 PM on October 25, 2013 [2 favorites]
As the designer lives in NYC I have to wonder, how do actual people who are from and live in Baltimore feel about the omnipresence of The Wire. It is one of the greatest artistic achievements made recently and all, but it must grate on natives who are real people and not set pieces.
posted by munchingzombie at 2:53 PM on October 25, 2013
posted by munchingzombie at 2:53 PM on October 25, 2013
"A man must have a code" - in this case it appears to be some sort of code that generates the same typographic font for every statement.
posted by z11s at 3:04 PM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by z11s at 3:04 PM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
I was so excited to click the link, and my reaction was exactly the same as burnmp3s. What a disappointment.
posted by letitrain at 3:18 PM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by letitrain at 3:18 PM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
To be fair to the designer, one would have to have watched all of the episodes (possibly repeatedly) to have developed designs unique to each episode and quote. That would be a shit-ton of original, probably non-paying, work. Since this is for charity, I can cut them some slack.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:41 PM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Thorzdad at 3:41 PM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
I couldn't put my finger on it at first, but now I know what design style it reminds me of.
posted by jason_steakums at 3:58 PM on October 25, 2013 [7 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 3:58 PM on October 25, 2013 [7 favorites]
jason_steakums, knew before I clicked that link exactly what it was going to be.
What a terrible mismatch of style and theme.
posted by eyeballkid at 4:12 PM on October 25, 2013
What a terrible mismatch of style and theme.
posted by eyeballkid at 4:12 PM on October 25, 2013
To be fair to the designer, one would have to have watched all of the episodes (possibly repeatedly) to have developed designs unique to each episode and quote. That would be a shit-ton of original, probably non-paying, work. Since this is for charity, I can cut them some slack.
Yes, to do a good job, you would have to be familiar with the source material. The Wire is a beloved television series that many people have watched all the way through without considering it non-paying work; I suspect creative types in Baltimore even more so. I'm sure the intentions were good, but I think that a show with the depth of The Wire deserves even a quarter-inch of depth in the treatment.
But, as they say, deserve got nuthin' to do with it.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 4:28 PM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
Yes, to do a good job, you would have to be familiar with the source material. The Wire is a beloved television series that many people have watched all the way through without considering it non-paying work; I suspect creative types in Baltimore even more so. I'm sure the intentions were good, but I think that a show with the depth of The Wire deserves even a quarter-inch of depth in the treatment.
But, as they say, deserve got nuthin' to do with it.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 4:28 PM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:38 PM on October 25, 2013 [8 favorites]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:38 PM on October 25, 2013 [8 favorites]
I bet you could find sixty artists in Baltimore, each of whom would put their own spin on one of these and who would be happy to help out the Baltimore Urban Debate League.
posted by Navelgazer at 5:16 PM on October 25, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by Navelgazer at 5:16 PM on October 25, 2013 [2 favorites]
When I lived in Baltimore I was a judge for the Baltimore Urban Debate League. I really loved The Wire. In other words, I would love to support this project.
These posters suck.
Baltimore is a city with more good art stuff going on than most. It even has a great art focused public high school (although I'm not positive if they have a debate team.) It's a crazy fucking shame they didn't find a way to tap into that for this project.
posted by OmieWise at 5:32 PM on October 25, 2013
These posters suck.
Baltimore is a city with more good art stuff going on than most. It even has a great art focused public high school (although I'm not positive if they have a debate team.) It's a crazy fucking shame they didn't find a way to tap into that for this project.
posted by OmieWise at 5:32 PM on October 25, 2013
I'm also not sold on these posters. They have an "in your face" attitude, which on the surface seems appropriate – because it's a show about gangs, drugs and street life, among other things – but The Wire was special for taking on this subject matter and giving it real depth and human value.
Anyway, here are a couple of promotional links pulled from the blog:
Anyway, here are a couple of promotional links pulled from the blog:
Printmag interview with Steven Heller (a well known design writer)
Steven Heller: I’ll be honest, I like them en masse, but there is a certain monotony too. What is your feeling about that?
Oliver Munday (designer): This was something I struggled with, as well. I wanted [there] to be a certain power to them all appearing together, but [it] definitely gets monotonous. This harkens back to the guidelines I set for the myself in the beginning. I think once a poster is up on the wall, removed from the cluster, it will maintain [its] personality and stand out in the way it should.
Fast Co. Design articleposted by quosimosaur at 5:35 PM on October 25, 2013
Munday’s aesthetic inspiration for the design came from The Globe Poster Company, a Baltimore institution that created Day-Glo posters for events like boxing matches and blues shows for more than 80 years before closing in 2010.
I think this is the only Wire poster I would ever need.
posted by honestcoyote at 6:08 PM on October 25, 2013 [6 favorites]
posted by honestcoyote at 6:08 PM on October 25, 2013 [6 favorites]
I dig them, and I like being able to chose from the enormous variety of quotes; it makes me a lot more likely to buy one. I mean, how often does a person get the chance to display "It pays to go with the union card every time" in their living rooml?
That said, I'm hoping they don't sell too many of this one. Can't really imagine a good context for throwing that up on your wall.
posted by redsparkler at 7:52 PM on October 25, 2013
That said, I'm hoping they don't sell too many of this one. Can't really imagine a good context for throwing that up on your wall.
posted by redsparkler at 7:52 PM on October 25, 2013
UN-altered REPRODUCTION and DISSEMINATION of these IMPORTANT Posters is ENCOURAGED, ESPECIALLY to COMPUTER BULLETIN BOARDS.
posted by doop at 12:24 AM on October 26, 2013
posted by doop at 12:24 AM on October 26, 2013
I love The Wire, but this is some Seinfeld shit right here.
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 2:33 PM on October 26, 2013
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 2:33 PM on October 26, 2013
As the designer lives in NYC I have to wonder, how do actual people who are from and live in Baltimore feel about the omnipresence of The Wire. It is one of the greatest artistic achievements made recently and all, but it must grate on natives who are real people and not set pieces.
I lived in Baltimore for years and grew up in the DMV. When I moved to Los Angeles I mainlined "The Wire" over Christmas out of homesickness. I think the show captured the city really well. That's really how it looks and that's really how people sound. Or at least looked and sounded in the early/mid 2000s, when I was living there and the show was filming.
I love the show, and as far as I know it's beloved in Baltimore altogether. You're talking about a city that celebrates John Waters as a native son made good and who named their football team after an Edger Allen Poe poem -- as a whole, Baltimore's sensibility veers toward the dark and complicated. The show did some justice to that, too.
The only thing that grated from beginning to end was McNulty's accent. And yeah, I hated S2. It didn't feel like the Baltimore I knew at all. Not to say that version of Baltimore didn't/doesn't exist, but I couldn't connect with it. Plus, those dockworkers were so *dumb.*
I love The Wire, but this is some Seinfeld shit right here.
Seconded.
posted by rue72 at 6:01 PM on October 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
I lived in Baltimore for years and grew up in the DMV. When I moved to Los Angeles I mainlined "The Wire" over Christmas out of homesickness. I think the show captured the city really well. That's really how it looks and that's really how people sound. Or at least looked and sounded in the early/mid 2000s, when I was living there and the show was filming.
I love the show, and as far as I know it's beloved in Baltimore altogether. You're talking about a city that celebrates John Waters as a native son made good and who named their football team after an Edger Allen Poe poem -- as a whole, Baltimore's sensibility veers toward the dark and complicated. The show did some justice to that, too.
The only thing that grated from beginning to end was McNulty's accent. And yeah, I hated S2. It didn't feel like the Baltimore I knew at all. Not to say that version of Baltimore didn't/doesn't exist, but I couldn't connect with it. Plus, those dockworkers were so *dumb.*
I love The Wire, but this is some Seinfeld shit right here.
Seconded.
posted by rue72 at 6:01 PM on October 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
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posted by Admiral Haddock at 2:20 PM on October 25, 2013 [6 favorites]