Sorry, but artistic license doesn't trump the fact you can clearly read the scoreboard at the Coliseum with it clearly stating that it's Sweden v Mexico (not to mention the Quakes have never played at the Coliseum in that configuration). As for Seattle fans, of course they liked it, their side of it is great and ours makes us look like we've never played a game worth taking a photo of. I'd like it too if I were them. Just as much as I'm sure they'd have disliked it if the poster used a picture of some soccer friendly being played between UW and Oregon at Husky Stadium. It would be such an easy fix too given how many great games and how many great stadium shots there are of the Quakes, which is what is really stinging about it. I mean here, insert this public domain photo into the background and problem is solved.
If posters with massive mistakes are being allowed in I may have to submit one just to make something this blatant doesn't happen again. Don't get me wrong Don, I'm sure Ricardo's heart was in the right place, and the concept is a good one (both his flip poster idea and SSV doing posters in general). But it's a bit demeaning when the poster purporting to represent our half of the heritage cup doesn't do nearly as good a job of it as the Seattle side does. Like I said, this would have been just as if the Sounders side had been Husky Stadium during a UW soccer match, that would have been equally unacceptable. That's probably why I'm reacting so harshly to it. I'm very embarrassed that the Quakes and us as Quakes fans are being represented by Mexico and Sweden, like we couldn't fill a stadium on our own for a good photo. Has anyone approached Ricardo about that and pointed out the issue so he can even have a chance to fix it if he wanted to? That's all I'm saying.
"Massive mistakes"?! Art is not susceptible of mistake. "l'art pour l'art." "'Art for art's sake' was a bohemian creed in the nineteenth century, a slogan raised in defiance of those who . . . thought that the value of art was to serve some moral or didactic purpose. 'Art for art's sake' affirmed that art was valuable as art, that artistic pursuits were their own justification and that art did not need moral justification — and indeed, was allowed to be morally subversive. ". . . Art for art's sake is commonly shortened to 'Art's gonna art'." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_for_art's_sake
The winning design is great, they just used the wrong images. It shouldn't have ever been accepted as a candidate.
This assertion is internally contradictory. As I suggested politely to athletics68, if you think you can design a better poster, you're welcome to try next year. Further, aren't you the guy who wishes there was a vibrant Casbah supporters group but has no interest in participating with the group? You get out of things what you put into them.
Don, you know as well as I that these posters are not just art for the sake of being art. They're also representative of the Heritage Cup and the two games played to obtain it. And to that end represent the two fan bases in that pursuit. Nothing I said has anything to do with the moral or didactic purpose of these posters, rather I'm concerned with their symbolic nature and how it is inaccurately portraying the Earthquakes and their fanbase in the context of the Heritage Cup or any context for that matter (which ultimately is these posters primary purpose otherwise you wouldn't have made them).
And in the great American tradition, most of the voters were uninformed about the problems with their choice at all or until it was too late. (or in the case of Seattlites it either didn't effect them or was a benefit since it belittles their opponents (Quakes fans)). Look I'm not trying to be a dick about this, I'm just pissed we're being poorly represented that's all.
Why don't we replace that fine picture of a Sounders game at Centurylink Field with an image of some random USL PDL friendly at the Tacoma Dome and see how you would feel about it then
Good luck finding one? Only time the Tacoma Dome has been used for soccer is back in the MISL days when the Stars played there:
I wasn't intending my comment that way. Perhaps I was a little harsh, for which I apologize. I just wish more fans would become more involved.
No apologies needed. We, our brothers and sisters in this Quakes fans family sometimes need a wake up call, involment in supporting our club is esential to the club's survival.
We have no rule for submission that has been violated here. That would have been inappropriate. This is a fan competition, and so the sensibilities and aesthetic of the fans are what we are going to see. I can certainly see the purist side of this argument, but censoring the design just wasn't an option. Congratulations to Richardo. As a design instructor I am pleased to see that the most clever delivery and best formal composition won out over very strong competition.
Perfect.. Makes about the same amount of sense as the image behind the Quakes side of the winning poster.
There is a element of hypocrisy in the argument against the image of the Coliseum vs. an image from Buck Shaw, in that is seems we have such an easy time trashing it's looks and condition, is a shot of Buck Shaw that much more appealing than a shot of Coliseum? While Sounders stadium looks good, but has a crap pitch, ours does not look so good and has a magnificent pitch. What do we see in the poster? The stadium, not the pitch. I suspect there is some commandment out of Stanford that states “Thou shalt not take our image without our divine permission”. Seems the criteria for the poster was visual accuracy, make each stadium look similar and sacrifice some realism in the process. I agree with Don that art should be able to do this, yet I see and sympathize with your passion about correctness. I think comparing image of our porta-potty stadium to a shot of CenturyLink Field, realistic as that is, would have just messed up the whole “Same flipped up as Flipped down” look of a playing card. This probably contradicts the response, to the trolling Flounders Moderator, I made, but sometimes you just have to say, “shut your pie hole”
Well even if they didn't want to use Buck Shaw due to the slightly depressing reality of the realistic situation (ie: we play in a little dump, they play in a very nice NFL stadium), there was always the Stanford games, actual Quakes games at the Coliseum (with the stadium in the configuration we used), Quakes games at Candlestick, Quakes games at Spartan, which all would have fit the bill very nicely. Point is there was plenty of pictures of Quakes games that could have been used rather than a picture of a Mexican/Swedish friendly. Hell even baring that he could have used his artistic license to try and cover up the fact is was an international friendly by covering or smudging out the scoreboard.
Thank you, I appreciate that. May I suggest an action that you can take to avoid a repeat of this problem: modify the rules of the contest so that this entry would not have been accepted without replacing those outdated images. For example, require that any images of players used in the poster be recent (in the past year?) and any images of games or venues reflect the current home(s) of the team(s) in question.
Also, not all camera angles would be so unflattering ... a shot of the players on the pitch, rather than of the stands, would be fine.