Mining (Heroic Realism)

Every time I look at design which has the Heroic Realism style, I have a quiet chuckle to myself. I just guess I see the Heroic Realism style as really corny because it portrays an unrealistic, over exaggerated way of communicating to the public. At first glance, when I look at this design I see some arrogant miner who sees himself better then everyone else. But taking into consideration the aspect of having the miner faceless gives the impression that the miner "can be you." The radiating light behind the miner helps support the miner being a hero as such which enforces the company being the "Top Gun in Mining."

The ad is for the mining tools company known as C.R. Kennedy. Which actually took me a while to figure out by looking at this design. The badge on the helmet states the companies name, or the end of the text. Originally I thought this ad was advertising a mine site, but it is actually for tools and surveying, so the design has failed on that sense. I don't like how the design has used lots of little arial photos of multiple mines as the background, to me it looks quite cheap. The silhouette of the miner, I believe is the only good design in this advertisement, because of its simplicity, and how it is still easily recognisable. The typography is quite easily read with the slab serifs, and the colours are chosen well with it working well with the colour of the helmet.

I originally saw this advertisement in an Australian Mining magazine.