Mad Men May Be Gone But Its Wonderful Graphics Live Forever

Every TV show has a certain style to it, especially its art and graphics. They are what set the show apart aside from the characters and the show in its entirety.

When a TV show has great, unique graphics, images, and artistic style, you recognize it all right away. Let's look at Mad Men's graphics and style for a minute. The red and white font colors (though "men" sometimes appears in black), and the sans serif typeface, are not unique to Mad Men. Other shows have used that typeface and certainly those two colors. However, when put all together, it becomes something special to Mad Men, especially when you look at how the show's name is split between the two colors (notice the emphasis on the "Mad" since it's in red?)

What is really special about the artistic style of the graphic design for Mad Men is the B&W figures, such as what appears to be Don Draper in the main image of the show. We also see a faceless, ambiguous, B&W man falling during the opening title sequence, seen here.

These faceless, 2-dimensional characters really don't stretch or further the artistic world but they are special, unique, and downright cool. No other show utilizes this style of art and it is easily identifiable by anyone who has even heard of Mad Men. These figures bring something incredibly unique to the table as well, we are able to become those figures since they have no faces. The graphic design team who created these figures made them faceless for a reason (and not because they couldn't draw faces); they wanted viewers to be able to be in the place of those "people".

This is what great, unique, and creative graphic design can do for a company, TV show, movie, or anything else, really.

A great professional graphic designer can identify some nugget of uniqueness in a project and build that to be a "competitive advantage" for a design; that objective was met and exceeded by the team who made this art. If you want that for your business, then call or email Integraphix, a Chicago graphic design studio.

Mad Men in Advertising

I'm sure by now you've heard of Mad Men - the show about an Advertising Agency in the early 20's run by all men and their, of course, beautiful wives. It's a great show, perhaps not full of advertising, but definitely drama, but I wanted to talk about the company itself.

Sterling Cooper. It's a strong name for an Advertising Agency, and had quite the long run. Sterling Cooper, an actual advertising agency, was founded in 1923 by Bertram Cooper and Roger Sterling Sr. on New York City. The show goes on to tell the tale of these men and their women sell their way to the top while hiding secrets, affairs and making dirty deals.

Is this the way advertising agencies run themselves these days? Perhaps not, but it's a great look inside the world of advertising in the 50s and 60s. It's cutthroat and there are multitudes of dirty deals being made, but the overall theme is that Don Draper is an advertising genius! The advertising agency, Sterling Cooper attracts clients because of his deep understanding of the consumer and what they want to see in advertising and products. He's moody, shady but brilliant all the same.