Matt Nelson's Posters

This poster can be found in train stations all over but this one was in Vevey. It is definitely inspired by the Postmodern movement with some International Style inspiration. It is one of a series of posters that are so similar that for the most part could easily be confused with each other. It uses exclusively sans-serif typefaces and the text on the bottom is broken into two groups, one flush left and one ragged right. The rest of the posters in the series are strictly graphic in that the poster appears flat, but his one incorporates a photographic element, where it looks like someone has scrunched it together in the middle.

I'm having a hard time understanding the concept of the scrunched middle, aside from making it more visually intriguing so that you'll want to stop and look at it. The website listed on the bottom is for Swiss Youth Hostels and the imagery is that of a house and a tree which makes me think that it's saying that staying in a hostel will be just like staying at your own home. The color they use for the background is a nice cyan, a nice cool, comfortable, inoffensive/peaceful color.

From far away and at first glance you think that someone has come along and defiled the poster. They successfully recreate the shadows and highlights that would be found on curled paper. From 5 feet away you start to notice the texture of the metal backing simulated on the poster and you can read the words. From 5 inches you can really see all the texture.

I'm always drawn to strong graphic elements more than photography. Photography has to be done right for me to really enjoy it, otherwise I think it can really cheapen the image. They use nice bright, clean colors that are contrasted in the relative darkness of the train station. Overall it seems like a very successful campaign.




I found this poster for the Communication Museum while in Bern on the way to the Communication Museum. It was in a standee on the side of the road. It seems to be mostly influenced by the International Style with its use of the grid and sans-serif typeface. It also uses photography but the use of it seems almost Art Nouveau or like the Japanese Posters. The photograph fills in the graphic element but keeps it flat because there's no contour to the shapes. It's like looking through a computer shaped window. To a certain degree it also has pulled some influence from Object Posters in that it is very stark and minimal.

The exhibition that this is advertising is all about the relationship between man and technology, the computer in particular. This is shown through the visual relationship of the photograph of the man creating the fill for the graphic illustration of the computer. It's really the photograph that pulls you in from afar. The computer doesn't read until you get closer and can see the details, it just looks like three squarish shapes. I really enjoy the level of detail, especially on the keys. It would have been so easy to have done the keys as square tops, but they rounded the corners and put a slight curve on it to make it look slightly concave like most keyboards are.

Thanks to many companies, but especially Apple, clean design is very trendy right now, so their use of clean design makes them seem hip and current, not how you stereotypically think of a museum. And it worked for me, after seeing this poster I was very excited to visit the impending museum.




This poster was found in one of the tunnels connecting platforms in a train station. It is a straight-up example of an object poster. It is minimal and elegant, has a stark white background with no frills and the focus is directly on that glorious ball of ice cream. A lot of movement is created by the two splashes of chocolate hitting the ball and it creates this nice calligraphic line.

The purpose of this poster is to sell ice cream. I'm sure it works. With how hot and humid it is, especially inside the train stations, you're suffering and then you see this perfect, creamy savior. So you reach in your pocket to make sure you have 3 francs and head to the closest kiosk.

The font that is used doesn't have a lot of weight so from afar all you can see is the photo of the ice cream. You have to come quite a bit closer to be able to read it.

I absolutely think this is a successful poster. It glorifies the already excellent ice cream here in Switzerland and capitalizes on the overall humidity of the location, as ice cream tends to do.