Friday One Sheet: THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME

Something that comes up in almost every entry of this column, lately, is the omission of the credit block in movie posters. As if to single-handedly compensate for this, the BLT Communications design for the latest Wes Anderson film, The Phoenician Scheme, goes wild with text. The credits are a waterfall of movie stars, and regular Anderson collaborators, in a chunky font, balancing a busy design.

There is also the rather large tagline at the top, which bleeds into the black border. And the title, or at least the PHOENICIAN portion, which takes up with entire width of the screen. This may be the most text heavy design, featured here, all year. Note, even the nun in the top corner of the photo gallery on the wall (a clever way of doing those 'boxes of the actors faces' on movie posters) is holding a book that says "Depictions of Blasphemy."

At the centre is a weary (are those bandages over gunshot wounds?) but game, Benicio Del Toro, staring directly at us, chomping a cigar, mid-meal in the bathtub, while reading a book. Is the red liquid in the glass phial bitters for his cocktail, or opium?

Overall, the poster is both focused, and maximal, which is not an easy feat. The bathroom tile goes a long way to keeping all the elements tied together here.