I’m a creative director at an agency that works with the movie studios. We have these same kind of restrictions: limited assets, tough clients and budget constraints. However, there is actually a way to work with clients in a manner where everybody ultimately gets what they want.
This design(s) signal to me that the assets they were provided were extremely limited. Unfortunately the solution was to simply reuse those assets over and over. The redundancy I’m seeing snuffs out the enchantment you might encounter when you slowly pour over the artwork of a game like Deadpool or even something older like Captain Fantastic. Pinball artwork has a history of being, busy—for last of a better word. Successful pinball artwork is rich with little moments and I always enjoy finding something I didn’t see before.
What I’m seeing in this pin is not just a lack of assets, but a lack creativity, and client management.
On the premium I see two airships on the apron, an airship on the playfield, an airship on an insert, a toy airship, one airship on the back glass and a couple on the side art. Now I’m airship-ed the fuck out at this point but there’s more.
The iconic band symbols are above the coin door, apron, in playfield inserts, and if that’s not enough they have made a wallpaper out of the symbols and have plastered that all over the art blades. You can also buy the custom shooter rod if you want to go another round.
The repetition doesn’t stop there. You’ll find a Swan Song logo on the apron, playfield, a Swan Song toy and and three more logos on the pop bumpers. You get a few more if you buy the LE but at least they’re on inconspicuous places like the entire back glass and side art.
I’m no expert but I’m into pinball. However, I can’t think of a game that doesn’t have art on the slingshot plastics. I’m sure it’s out there but in the last 10 or 15 years? Has it hit home that there is literally no art on those plastics? Why don’t we have Jimmy Page playing his double neck Gibson on one side and Robert Plant singing into a microphone or even holding a dove on stage like that wonderful photo from ’73? The omission of artwork on the plastics feel like more than a missed opportunity to me. It just makes the package seem incomplete.
Where was George Gomez durning all of this? Did he sign off on 8 airships? He’s done such a wonderful and impressive job assembling the team and pulling together a cohesive line of products. I just don’t know what happened here.
Led Zeppelin hits every nostalgia chord in my body. Emotionally I want this pin but as someone in the field it’s hard not to get past the tactical errors and view this as an under-delivery.