The Mario Blog

03.09.2020—1am    Post #16775
Mobile design and the verticality of it all

Vertical is the new whatever, especially for those choosing visuals to be consumed on the small screen of the smartphone.

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?

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:

Let The Story guide your mobile first strategy!

A good read to start the year 2020: The full trilogy of The Story now available–3 books to guide you through a mobile first strategy. Whether you’re a reporter, editor, designer, publisher, corporate communicator, The Story is for you! https://amazon

Mario’s speaking engagements

March 13, 2020, National Media College Association, New York City, NY, USA

Keynote presentation at the National Media College Association Spring Convention. My keynote is sponsored by Google.

http://www.collegemedia.org/

March 27, 2020, New York Press Association (NYPA), Sarasota Springs, NY, USA

https://nynewspapers.com

April 22, 2020, Newscamp 2020, Augsburg, Germany

https://medienkalender.bayern/event/newscamp-2020

April 26, 2020, INMA World Congress, Paris, France

TheMarioBlog post # 3223

The Mario Blog