Week 15 - Designer Comparision

The two artists/designers that I am going to compare are Stan Lee (creator and designer of many marvel comics and characters) and George Lois (designer of over 92 Esquire magazine covers).

Stan Lee
Craft - Stan Lee typically created all of his comics with pens and paper, he simply outlined the characters and text for each page with a black pen, then he eventually went back and added color to each page. None of his comics were computer generated, they were all hand drawn and colored by him and his team of designers at Marvel. His comics might have been copied and reprinted but the original copies were hand drawn. He was a master at coming up with ideas for characters or story plots. Which means not only did he draw most of his original characters himself but he also came up with the concept or background of each character too.
Composition - I believe he arranged the elements of his comics the way he did to show the reader the intensity of the comic and to show the actual superhero that the comic was about. With a well designed cover, a viewer can get an overall view of what that issue they were holding was all about and that would bring the viewer in to read the actual comic. Stan Lee was very good at capturing the reader's attention with just the cover art.
Concept - What Stan Lee liked to draw and create were superheros that were everyday average people at first then they would gain superpowers through a certain situation. Which showed that anyone can be a hero and you never know what might happen. Also in his comics, he liked to portray real life crime and problems to get people to relate to the victims and such and get them more involved in the comics, more than just reading it.

Stan Lee
(http://www.wired.com/images/article/full/2008/04/stan_lee_580x.jpg)

Stan Lee's Marvel comic, The Avengers
(http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/0/4/6429-2128-7025-1-avengers-the_super.jpg)

George Lois
Craft - George Lois created his magazine covers by typically finding an image or other magazine cover that he wanted to model his cover after and go from there. He would then take an image of the main person or idea that he was trying to communicate and work that into the image of the other magazine or object to make it his own and to get his point across.
Composition - I believe he arranged the elements of his magazine covers the way he did to show the deeper meaning he was trying to get across and see how people would react. He probably wanted the viewer to see the original image of the certain person or idea first then look at it and see how it compares to other magazines and see how he is typically making fun or making a parody of those other magazines.
Concept - George Lois is trying to communicate how he is making a parody of a particular situation or person and how he doesn't care much for that person or idea the original magazine had on its cover. He is always trying to show the truth and seriousness and maybe a little humor behind each image or cover he creates. People have gotten upset with some of his ideas and magazine covers, but he still does what he knows best and those people can't stop him from expressing himself.

George Lois
 (http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/shared/npr/201203/148765598.jpg)

George Lois's Esquire magazine cover of Muhammad Ali
(http://www.moma.org/images/dynamic_content/exhibition_page/18961.jpg?1248103646)

      Overall Stan Lee and George Lois have very different styles when it comes to creating art because one (Lee) creates comic books and the other (Lois) create magazine covers. They also have different styles of craftsmanship such as pen and paper to draw comics and taking actual images and modifying them on a computer. You can't really compare these two artist when it comes to composition because they are in two completely different areas and try to attract two completely different audiences, Lee wants the readers to see the overall comic along with he characters where as Lois wants the viewer to see the person or idea he is trying to portray. Finally when it comes to concept, Lee portrays superheros and extraordinary people with special abilities that help people where as Lois is portraying a parody, most of the time, and showing his disrespect or hatred for a particular person or idea. These are two completely different artists and they each have there own style that makes their artwork unique special in its own way.