Air Dubai looks great in grayscale

This week's flier proves that a great flier can be fashioned from very few elements. Just have a look at this Air Dubai flier. What do we have? a stark, stenciled image. Some type. A textured background. That's it. And it totally works. It all starts with the wise, if...

By Cory Casciato

June 2, 2010

[
        {
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Inline Content - Mobile Display Size",
          "component": "12017618",
          "insertPoint": "2",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
        },{
          "name": "Editor Picks",
          "component": "17242653",
          "insertPoint": "4",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18838239",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17261320",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18838239",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - Leaderboard Tower - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17261321",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        }
      ]

This week's flier proves that a great flier can be fashioned from very few elements. Just have a look at this Air Dubai flier. What do we have? a stark, stenciled image. Some type. A textured background. That's it.

And it totally works.

It all starts with the wise, if unusual, decision to go gray. This flier doesn't need color, but it takes a confident (or very poor) designer to realize that. The graf-style stencil (reminiscent of Banksy's work -- or is it a lift?) works really well as a black on concrete-textured gray, as it would in real life. And the touch of reverse type for the band name really makes it pop.

Elsewhere, the use of different fonts for each band works surprisingly well. That many mixed fonts is usually a bad sign, but in conjunction with the sleek, minimalist design aesthetic in use, it just provides a bit of individuality for each act without drawing undue focus from the main act/design.

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