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Presenting DJ Malloc's 'Paradigm Collection' photo

In seems that reworking old videogame covers in styles popularized by artsy fartsy books and movies is the new cool thing to do. For the cynical, it might seem like internet hivemind, but I can spot a good concept when I see it. The house that Olly Moss so nicely built has seen the likes of NeoGAF and Something Awful move in, and the results are often pretty nice.

The newest contributions to the alternative box art scene (Is there such a scene? If not, there should be) come courtesy of DJ Malloc, who presents his "Paradigm Collection." DJ Malloc's brand of alt-box art is inspired by the Criterion Collection line of DVDs, and all of his covers happen to be in the proper aspect ratio for a DVD case. So fire up that dusty printer and try them out since they're all quite good.

In the header image, you'll see a war pigs-inspired Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare cover alongside a Deus Ex sleeve ripped straight out your favorite Asimov novel. Lastly, there's a Vampire Chronicles cover that is interesting for two reasons: the anime style is totally different from the rest of the collection, and the source material happens to be the UDON Darkstalkers Tribute book, to which Paul Robertson also contributed.

The rest of DJ Malloc's alternative covers can be found on his Flickr page.

[Via Offworld]








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20 comments | showing # 1 to 20
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phantomile's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/15/2009 01:10
phantomile
Oh man The Longest Journey one is absolutely gorgeous.
wanderingpixel's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/15/2009 01:15
wanderingpixel
Deus Ex = Jizz
Michael Erazo's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/15/2009 01:23
Michael Erazo
Why can't all cover be more artistic as these?
Los255's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/15/2009 02:32
Los255
@Erazo

I completely agree.

I wonder what an even more stylized Borderlands box would look like? FAP.
Happymeowmeow's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/15/2009 02:34
Happymeowmeow
That IS a cool thing to do.

I wonder if as the whole limited edition trend continues on it's course we'll see some alternate edition covers that are actually good.
Also once/if digital distubution really takes off actually owning a physical copy will only appeal to collectors who'll pay extra for cool artwork and stuff.
Monster w21 Faces's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/15/2009 03:29
Monster w21 Faces
For the record.

All this artwork is stolen.

He's just slapped his format over the top of it.
Bluejuan85's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/15/2009 03:45
Bluejuan85
I almost mistook the call of duty one for Fallout 3 because when you look at the picture from far away it looks like the enclave.
jus10j's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/15/2009 06:30
jus10j
@Monster Thank you for pointing that out. His text work is absolutely horrible, too. These are nowhere near the caliber of the good entries out there, and that's not just including Olly's. NeoGAF's thread has some amazing ideas. This guy's work looks like he dicked around for an hour.
Poopface Morty's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/15/2009 07:13
Poopface Morty
"Why can't all cover be more artistic as these?" Because publishers are afraid of something different. Despite the fact that that's what makes most great designs great, they want to stick with the kind of designs that have been proven to help sell their games, even if it doesn't necessarily translate into more sales for their titles. The whole ephemeral 'photomanipulation' technique is the style of the day.

I'm with Monster. This guy is using the copyrighted work of others (and I mean far from just using existing game titles as the subject of his work), and his typography terrible. I wouldn't mind so much if he used stock images, but using the copyrighted works of others is not impressive at all.

jus10j, I wouldn't even say an hour. Once you find a good image, lay out the type as lazily as he has, and export, I'd say even with image searching a half-hour tops for each piece, if that. Using his "techniques", I probably could ban each one out in a matter of 15 minutes a peice, at the most.

What makes these Criterion Collection artwork knockoffs great are typically well executed concepts that rely on the hard work of the creator to create something wholly original. Don't get me wrong, I love these kinds of artwork redesigns, shit, I even tried starting a thread here in the forums that garnered the interest of about 4 people. But this guy's work is not impressive to me in the slightest.
jus10j's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/15/2009 07:59
jus10j
@Poopface (Great name, BTW) Nice points made. I also like spaecsick's approach to film with his "I Can Read Movies" series. Completely trumps this guy. And by an hour, I meant total!
OrangeJuice's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/15/2009 11:35
OrangeJuice
I like how this guy has info about the games on his flicker, but he doesn't give any names or links of the real authors who made these paintings wich he is using for those covers...
tragicallyhipster's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/15/2009 13:39
tragicallyhipster
oh wow soo pretty. kinda wish they were just a bit bigger.

hmm... Now I'm inspired to go play with photoshop
tragicallyhipster's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/15/2009 13:42
tragicallyhipster
@Monster Hmm didn't know what has he stolen then? I would love to know.
daphaknee's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/15/2009 14:59
daphaknee
http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?t=20363


what about everyone else
RonBurgandy2010's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/15/2009 15:27
RonBurgandy2010
These are fucking amazing.
Batthink's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/15/2009 16:01
Batthink
I'm liking that Darkstalkers one. :O)
OrangeJuice's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/15/2009 16:33
OrangeJuice
@ tragicallyhipster the paintings he uses for covers are not by its the work of other painters, you just can go around artforums and take other painter works from their portofolios
Wedge's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/15/2009 17:07
Wedge
Eh... dont' like a lot of them... font looks like shit on most, a couple are ok though.
OrangeJuice's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/15/2009 18:10
OrangeJuice
fuck... i meant - the paintings he uses for covers are not by him its the work of other painters, you just cant go around artforums and take other painter works from their portofolios
Patorama's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/15/2009 19:38
Patorama
He could have tried to not rip off the Criterion box layout exactly. If you take away the artwork that other people created for him, there is very little design work at all put into these.
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