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As I said, I don't really sympathize as I do similar work that's commented on by a much larger audience and I have never thrown what is bluntly a "bitch fit." One comment would have been fine, rather it was the series of comments that pushed me to repost his tweet, referring to people on forums as not having lives (I probably spend a tenth of my time on this forum as he does on Twitter and am a lot better for it) and gaining sympathy from a certain person who routinely takes information form this forum regarding upcoming titles despite claiming to never come here.

Edit: Bwahaha.

Well, it's four tweets, three of which are in response to things people said back to him. In any case, I don't think anyone should ever be held responsible for anything they say on twitter, which uh doesn't exactly foster well thought out posts.

Matt wrote:Would it be petty of us to have a "Design a Better Modern Times Cover" contest? Well, yes, it would be, but should we do it anyway?

I love this idea. It's a way of putting our money where our mouth is, so to speak. I only wish Stop Making Sense still posted here.

domino harvey wrote:The vitriol should really be directed towards Criterion for approving the image, not the designer for making it. Criterion could have told him "back to the drawing board with you" and maybe he'd have subsequently churned out something everyone could have been proud of. Look at even the best designer's specs and you'll see some terrible first tries-- and that's what this looks like, unfortunately

I was thinking the exact same thing this morning. It is truly astonishing that Criterion approved this cover. This isn't a design that disappoints because it's bizarre and inappropriate like the pink Viridiana, and it's not a design that's boring and obvious like My Dinner with Andre. Rather, it fails because it looks as though the designer was turning in a first day assignment for his Intro to Photoshop class at the local community college. That Criterion doesn't see this amazes me.

domino harvey wrote:The vitriol should really be directed towards Criterion for approving the image, not the designer for making it. Criterion could have told him "back to the drawing board with you" and maybe he'd have subsequently churned out something everyone could have been proud of.

Maybe someone should email them the A Clockwork Orange cover? Maybe they would drop it then?

Tom Hagen wrote:I still don't understand how Ben Folds fans fit into all of this. What an inexplicable reference point.

Sam Smith is a drummer as well as designer, Ben Folds being one of those he drums for.

I don't love or hate the cover but the homage to A Clockwork Orange does annoy me and strikes me as being inapropriate on Sam's part. I'm sure it's one of Sam's favorite films but it does a disservice to a brilliant Chaplin film to base the packaging on an unrelated Kubrick one. Maybe Criterion were not aware of this when they approved Sam's cover and I do think someone should point this out.

I agree that Criterion should drop the cover. I LOVE the work Sam did for House. It's too bad that he had to have such a public meltdown and it may impact the amount of work he gets from Criterion in the future.

Are you kidding? Meltdown? He made four mildly bitchy twitter comments looking for reassurance from his fans, which he received. That's not even an unrequested fission surplus.

matrixschmatrix wrote:Are you kidding? Meltdown?

Nope, Hi-Ro-Shi-Ma!

Very sad.

I think he responded better to this forum's criticism than this forum is to his. Sort of a, "Ouch, anonymous people on the Internet can be kinda jerks, huh?" vs. "Dude should grin and bear it. Now I'm REALLY gonna lay into that cover!" Matt's idea is pretty funny though.

I agree the guy should perhaps grow a thicker skin, but the criticism in this thread rarely rises above "worst artwork ever 1/10" and "that cover makes me want to vom." This board can be a dyspeptic lot.

Maybe the contest should be "So you think you can spend less time designing a better Modern Times cover and more time tweeting bitterly about the fallout"

I kind of liked the Modern Times cover at first. You guys have made me hate it.

antnield wrote:Sam Smith is a drummer as well as designer, Ben Folds being one of those he drums for.

He's a part time designer? Is this why the cover is so bad? Or has he been busy assisting on Folds' next masterpiece?

Sam Smith's rockin' the suburbs . . . just like Charlie Chaplin did. Rockin' the suburbs, except that he was talented.

OK, now we deserve that Twitter rant.

swo17 wrote:OK, now we deserve that Twitter rant.

Yeah, really. It's one thing to make fun of his Chaplin cover, but another entirely to attack his other, unrelated projects.

And, I mean, I think the "redesign the cover" contest is actually pretty funny, but this thread is going too far.

Public figures are open to scrutiny, period. I'm not saying this guy deserves everything being lobbed at him, but boo hooing that pretty mild lampooning of his musical output is absurd

Drummers aren't musicians anyway, right?

Thanks guys, I'm loving the original cover more and more...

You think that Chaplin cover was bad, take a look at this effort.

So, what really bothers me now that I noticed is that Criterion is crediting "Charlie" instead of "Charles" on the cover

Do you think we'll get "The Night of the Hunter", directed by Charlie Laughton?

"Chuck Chaplin" has a nice ring to it

... and on that note:

Vol.2 of this topic