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Napier · #26 Post by **Napier** » Thu May 18, 2006 9:43 am

Sorry, my bad.I thought he was referring to the stills on the main page.

justeleblanc · #27 Post by **justeleblanc** » Thu May 18, 2006 10:07 am

Different stills.

rumz · #28 Post by **rumz** » Thu May 18, 2006 11:23 am

Narshty wrote:Looks nice, but smacks of a mid-life crisis. Tarting up because there's a new younger, flashier format in town.

Agreed entirely. I've got no complaints with the new brand/website in terms of aesthetics, as both are very attractive (their site, however, could stand to be w3 standards-compliant). The new logo, in and of itself, is very recognizeable, and this is precisely why I prefer their now dated masthead. Looking at a row of Criterion discs in a retailer (as well as a row of spines on your bookshelf), you don't notice the masthead immediately. It's subdued behind the title typography or the colors. Furthermore, it's variable, iterated in different colors to suit the color scheme of the disc; by this measure, the old Criterion masthead was subordinate to the film.

Now, it's not. At least, I don't think it will be. (We'll see if Eric Anderson draws it with a pencil when his brother gets another film in the collection.) I expect that same, bolded "c" to be in the upper-left corner of every disc, pronounced, obtrusive, and invariable, an icon of conformity rather than quality.

justeleblanc · #29 Post by **justeleblanc** » Thu May 18, 2006 11:57 am

So my thoughts are that the new design limited the amount of releases per month. Feel free to shoot it down.

Criterion planned to release a new design this year, my guess is it was delayed significantly. They only had a small amount of films to release under the old logo, so they spread these out (rather thinly) and they couldn't release any more films without revealing the new packaging designs. Hence why we were getting such few releases per month.

And then they noticed all the complaining and shit talking, so they decided to release the Powell & Press film under the old banner -- the moved up the release date to appease us fans. Hence how the cover design originally had no Criterion on it. They removed the old logo without replacing the new. And then when we started making fun of the cover hardcore, they changed it a bit.

This is just a theory that I'm happy with for now. My guess is the entire package is different. Different looking spine for sure. Different looking back cover. Different booklets. I'll be interested to look at the Canterbury DVD if only to see whether or not the disc menu has the new or old logo -- I bet it's the new.

denti alligator · #30 Post by **denti alligator** » Thu May 18, 2006 12:22 pm

Interesting theory, though this would mean that we'd be getting on the avergae of 6-7 films per month for a while.

justeleblanc · #31 Post by **justeleblanc** » Thu May 18, 2006 12:31 pm

denti alligator wrote:Interesting theory, though this would mean that we'd be getting on the avergae of 6-7 films per month for a while.

Dunno, they may go back up to normal output, but I see little reason to start releasing 7 for month, especially since things might continue to be a little slow as they continue to restore their older films.

Antoine Doinel · #32 Post by **Antoine Doinel** » Thu May 18, 2006 1:14 pm

The August covers are up and the look has indeed changed. The Criterion Collection now appears in a tab on the left (like the website), and now the new "C" logo is in the upper left hand corner. The tab is ok, but the floating "C" is really distracting.

This new "branding" is way more intrusive on the artwork than before. Why go to the effort of creating beautiful artwork if you're just going to slap your logos all over the place?

What A Disgrace · #33 Post by **What A Disgrace** » Thu May 18, 2006 1:30 pm

I agree with Antoine Doinel. Unless this new logo can fix my dinner and convince Paramount to license their silent library, it can bite me. The old logo was one of the few logos that I actually liked on my DVD covers.

nick · #34 Post by **nick** » Thu May 18, 2006 1:37 pm

the coding must still be off as it works fine in iexplorer but comes out all grey in firefox on my work PC.

miless · #35 Post by **miless** » Thu May 18, 2006 2:13 pm

justeleblanc wrote:So my thoughts are that the new design limited the amount of releases per month. Feel free to shoot it down.

I would think that it has more to do with the Rohmer Box... They always lag a bit right before introducing the boxed set (I mean they did have to clean up six films for it)...

richast2 · #36 Post by **richast2** » Thu May 18, 2006 3:35 pm

Oedipax wrote:Fun to see what moment from the film they've picked out.

yeah, I'm really glad they picked an image with Ben Affleck in it to represent Dazed and Confused.

#37 Post by **cdnchris** » Thu May 18, 2006 3:51 pm

The image they chose for Armageddon really captures the emotion of the film. I weep just looking at it.

Ted Todorov · #38 Post by **Ted Todorov** » Thu May 18, 2006 6:21 pm

nick wrote:the coding must still be off as it works fine in iexplorer but comes out all grey in firefox on my work PC.

It comes out grey and unreadable in Safari. Come on Criterion, get someone with a Mac to beta test your website.

EDIT: I take it back -- looks like they fixed it.

Cinesimilitude · #39 Post by **Cinesimilitude** » Fri May 19, 2006 2:17 am

richast2 wrote:
Oedipax wrote:Fun to see what moment from the film they've picked out.
yeah, I'm really glad they picked an image with Ben Affleck in it to represent Dazed and Confused.

who's gonna be the first one to bitch about the fact that some of the images are cropped and not in the proper aspect ratio?

godardslave · #40 Post by **godardslave** » Fri May 19, 2006 2:32 am

I'd like to bitch again about the fact that there is too much white on the new website.

thankyou.

lull · #41 Post by **lull** » Fri May 19, 2006 10:38 am

damn. i take a week off and this is what i have to come to?
do not like the new logo. i entirely agree with Narshty and AntoineDoinel - it feels forced (don't see myself getting used to it anytime soon) AND the old logo was one of the classiest, inobtrusive labels ever. i loved it. i thought this stylized C would be for Eclipse. how sadly wrong i was.

i'll be able to live with this. at some point. but it'll be a painful reminder of how a great company that once did its own thing felt the need to tart up. it's kinda sad.

don't get me wrong, i'll still get most of their releases. having said that, though, it's like your great lost love coming back having gotten a botched plastic surgery...on her fucking face! it's just wrong :)

Napoleon · #42 Post by **Napoleon** » Fri May 19, 2006 10:45 am

Do you think that they'll have that C in the top left corner of the screen while the films are running?

That would ruffle(!) a few feathers.

richast2 · #43 Post by **richast2** » Fri May 19, 2006 10:50 am

n w wrote:Do you think that they'll have that C in the top left corner of the screen while the films are running?

That would ruffle(!) a few feathers.

though I think Lars von Trier would approve

mezcla · #44 Post by **mezcla** » Fri May 19, 2006 10:58 am

i guess i can weigh in with my 2 cents, since it is believed that they hang on our every word. i'm not a fan of the c in the top corner. it fits on seduced and abandoned, but it seems like a comic book logo so i don't think i'll appreciate it on other releases. i can get used to the tab and i kind of like the new website. ironically enough i think the thing i like the least about the site is where they have used the same template from the old website (i.e. "browse the collection"). also, kill the animated intro.
i guess we haven't seen the spine yet. hopefully this haiku from elpenor will not have become outdated

That line down the spine:
Sexiest geometry
Since the sinusoid.

justeleblanc · #45 Post by **justeleblanc** » Fri May 19, 2006 12:07 pm

richast2 wrote:
n w wrote:Do you think that they'll have that C in the top left corner of the screen while the films are running?

That would ruffle(!) a few feathers.
though I think Lars von Trier would approve

You beat me to the joke!

Anthony · #46 Post by **Anthony** » Fri May 19, 2006 12:44 pm

I don't like this new design at all. The new "C" logo is stupid and looks stupid in the top left hand corner of the DVD cover. Criterion sure seems to be making a lot of stupid decisions as of late. No more subtitles on english langauges releases... windowboxing on 1:33:1 material, the new stupid-ass logo, etc. What's next Criterion? How bout some advertisements that we have to sit through before the movie begins (just like Disney does on their DVDs). In fact, how bout a New-Coke commercial at the beginning of every feature? Dumb-asses!

Antoine Doinel · #47 Post by **Antoine Doinel** » Fri May 19, 2006 12:53 pm

It just occured to me, but I guess this means on all future releases, the old Criterion Collection logo that is underlined at the beginning of the films will probably be replaced by the horrid animation on the new website.

I'm just glad my Yi Yi cover will be free of the floating C.

Cinephrenic · #48 Post by **Cinephrenic** » Fri May 19, 2006 1:41 pm

The floating "C" is not really attractive on the top left corner of the covers. Also, does anyone find this new look damaging to the integrity of the other spine releases. They could of just kept the new look for their new line.

Narshty · #49 Post by **Narshty** » Fri May 19, 2006 1:47 pm

They presumably want people to recognise Eclipse as a quality-assured Criterion product, except now there's the slight catch that the actual Criterion brand is practically unrecognisable. It's laughable.

toiletduck! · #50 Post by **toiletduck!** » Fri May 19, 2006 1:59 pm

cinephrenic wrote:Also, does anyone find this new look damaging to the integrity of the other spine releases.

For real?

Granted, I don't seem to mind the new look as much as most (The floating C needs a trial period, but I think I might even prefer the tab design to the criterion 'line'), but is your Viridiana gonna cry itself to sleep at night because people are associating it with the new, unruly Criterion generation? Did Seven Samurai do the same thing after new design mk. I came around, and if so, what's the recovery time, as I would like to know when I can expect to not hear pissing and moaning about it.

This isn't the Viridiana cover... Criterion has invested a lot of time and money into this design, and aren't about to give us the ol' "j/k, here's the old style back! LOL!!!!" Yeah, it may or may not be an improvement on their previous design, it sure as hell still beats a good chunk of other boutique labels.

When they go all Artificial Eye on us, then there might be problems.

-Toilet Dcuk