Ignoring the walls

I know I should be figuring out our whole wall situation here, but instead I've been thinking about things to hang on the walls. I don't know why, but I have a hard time finding things I actually like enough to hang and look at every day. Our condo in Seattle pretty much looked like we had just moved in the entire time we lived there because I never really got around to addressing the wall decoration. I think part of my problem is that I prefer to hang one or two large things, instead of grouping a bunch of smaller things. Too fussy for my taste. I also think it takes a lot of skill to make a gallery style wall look good. And you have to have a lot of pieces to begin with. I've always been frustrated by the fact that big things generally come with big price tags - hence the empty walls.

One good solution to this problem is framing movie posters (or any other sort of poster). The trick is to find one that has some style and is for a movie that you actually like and have seen more than once. Otherwise, your guests will know you are a fraud. You could also find a poster you like, buy the movie, watch it a few times, find you LOVE it (surprise! how convenient), and then hang the poster. No one will know.

Wait, now you're going to think that's what I did. Dang! I swear it's not. I bought the poster for the Alfred Hitchcock movie "Vertigo". Have you seen it? It's great. And the poster is awesome.

First of all, I feel a little fraudulent because I bought the Italian version of the poster. For some reason the Italian ones are the only ones that fit perfectly in Ikea frames! Go figure. I just popped it on a hook that the previous owners left (can we take a moment for a collective sigh of relief that she didn't leave whatever was hanging there? thank you) to get an idea of what it looks like.

Anyway, the poster was designed by Saul Bass, a graphic designer that worked in the mid-20th century. He is also credited with reinventing (and elevating to an art form) film title sequences. I mean, they're still kind of boring because they are only the opening credits, but before he came along the credits didn't really have much to do with the movie itself. Bass's title sequences set the tone for films like Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo", "North by Northwest", and "Psycho". He also did the credits for  Otto Preminger's "Anatomy of a Murder" and Stanley Kubrick's "Spartacus" and "The Shining" (talk about setting the tone! Two minutes into the movie and you already have the chills). Great stuff. Definitely worth a trip to YouTube.

His posters are very cool, too.

Bold and big. Hey, maybe one of them is your new favorite movie.