Mobile design and the verticality of it all

Landscape images simply won’t cut it to be displayed well on the smallest canvas of them all, the screen of your smartphone.

Art directors, photographers and videographers have learned the lesson well, and so they are sure to get imagery that fits vertically.

So, I am not surprised that now the first “vertical;” film, created to be consumed on the smartphone, has arrived.

My colleague, Rodrigo Fino, of our Garcia Media Latinamerica office in Buenos Aires called attention to it and published a blog about it. I am delighted to see it, as “verticalism” as part of mobile phone design is a topic I cover extensively in my workshops and for my students at Columbia University.

The first vertical film?

‘Searching’ Producer Timur Bekmambetov To Shoot World’s First Vertical Format Blockbuster

The vertical film is by prolific Russian director and producer Timur Bekmambetov, whose credits include multiple Hollywood pics such as Searching, Ben Hur and Wanted, and is set to go into production in May. Escape From Hell isthe first blockbuster movie made entirely in a vertical format.

Bekmambetov is credited as one of the inventors of the ‘Screenlife’ film and TV format, which sees events unfold from the perspective of a computer, tablet or smartphone. Movies he has worked on in the genre include Unfriended ($63m U.S. box office) and the John Cho-starring Searching ($75m).

I am sure that this will be one of many vertical films to come. I suspect that this is the decade when designers in a variety of fields devote themselves to designing for the smallest screen of them all—and the most popular platform. I admonish my students, and all in my workshops to design from small to large. I imagine this will be a common practice by the end of this decade if not earlier.

Vertical design is key

Perhaps this first vertical film designed for mobile will inspire those shooting photos and videos for news outlets to keep “verticalism” in mind.

We already see the prevalence of good vertical visual images to accompany major pieces published for mobile consumption, as per the examples below:

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