Today TechCrunch posted an image of the poster for the upcoming film about facebook entitled “The Social Network.” Now, I’m not posting this because I’m even remotely intrigued by the idea of a film about Mark Zuckerberg, but rather because the poster seemed very familiar to me. Check it out below:

Nice, right? Now check out the cover to the Criterion edition of Nicolas Roeg’s “The Man Who Fell to Earth” (starring David Bowie!).

This is pretty obvious, isn’t it? With the exception of the browser bar overlaid on the right of the poster for “The Social Network,” and the slight difference in typography, these are practically the same composition. For my part, I prefer both the typeface and the quality of the photography in the Bowie cover. I don’t know that I care for the “washed out” look of the Zuckerberg cover. Here’s a side-by-side comparison to assist. Bowie is on the left (I hope that’s obvious) and Zuckerberg is on the right.

I’ve always loved the original cover, and I’m glad to see that other people (clearly) do too.

I just had to bring attention to a packaging redesign I saw the other day that really impressed me. The product is 8th Continent Soymilk. Here’s a photo of the old packaging…

This is all quite standard. A nicely lit shot illustrating what you might use 8th Continent’s rich, luscious soymilk for. Perhaps in cereal? Perhaps even with berries? Why not just drink it straight? This just screams “Me Too!”

BOOOOOOORRRRRRIIIINNNNNGGGGGGG!

Here’s the new packaging:

Dig that retro style! I love the simplicity of the illustrations and color schemes. The typography has also been improved. How will I, in the supermarket, figure out what this product is? The way I see it, the attractive design is going to grab my attention and compel me to step closer and read the label. Nice. These designs are both more competent and more confident.

Another great video also stolen from Blog Less.

2010/01 Michael Bierut from CreativeMornings on Vimeo.

I saw this today and felt compelled to post it.