Creating a successful design parody

This week I was tasked with creating a dynamic cover, telling the story of making of Pucked.

Early on a parody was mentioned as a possible direction for the cover. The story drew the ironic parallels between the creation of the film (in the Triad), and the story of the film itself. So, first was studying the elements of the DVD cover, since the film never had a theatric release.



Aardvark Bold was a close approximation for the "Pucked" logotype. I stroked the red text with white, and outlined the stroke, allowing the orange stroke on the outside—giving the appropriate collegiate/sporty feel. Putting the asterisk instead of the first letter gave the word it's intended double-meaning.

This type design was then dropped into Photoshop to distort the letters outwards. Cooper Black was easy to identify as the logotype face used for National Lampoon, and the blue and yellow colors were replicated, with the counters filled in.

It took awhile to find a stock image with legs spread wide enough to mimic the cover, but these skinny legs worked perfectly:




Mr. Grimes posed in a perfect manner to have him be stepping on top of a hockey puck. The large size of the hockey puck also adds ridiculous and non-realistic visual contrast. Then I added in the red bar at the bottom, and got a ice rink's texture to fill the background and give some light color to balance the design.