One of the most notable series on television, The Shield , comes to an end this week. For seven seasons, audiences have been riveted by the story of Vic Mackey Michael Chiklis ), a cop who goes way beyond rule breaking and into outright criminal activity.

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As The Shield wraps up, we're taking a look at the origins of some of the memorable and iconic print advertising campaigns for the series. FX is known for its distinct and creative print ads, and looking back at The Shield, you can see how they got more and more daring and evocative as the years went on.For this piece, we're specifically highlighting the final three seasons of the series, all of which stand out in the TV landscape for how quickly they catch the eye and tell a story. FX provided IGN with access to their archive material for The Shield, and I was able to view a huge amount of different concept art for the final three seasons of the series, showing interesting discarded ideas, and the often fascinating evolution of what would become each season's final campaign. Season 5 saw the introduction of Forest Whitaker as Jon Kavanaugh , and Whitaker is present in much of the concept art for that season. Said Sally Daws, Senior Vice President of Marketing & Advertising, "It felt like in the show there was always some nemesis each season," recalling characters like Monica Rawling Glenn Close ) and David Aceveda Benito Martinez ), and as Stephanie Gibbons, FX's Executive Vic President of Marketing and On-Air Promotions, noted, when Whitaker joined the show, "He was going to be a critical… Plus, he just has such an amazing face."Gibbons said they didn't want the Season 5 art to be about one character, and ultimately decided on "one iconic image" of Vic Mackey, with Kavanaugh and others included within that image.I noticed two striking images among the concept art of Mackey and Kavanaugh by themselves, in the same red paint spatter look of the final poster. Gibbons revealed that at one point, "We were considering doing all the characters in that style, but it's tough for us – like a big theatrical can -- like X-Men can go for every character -- but for us, it's more difficult."There were also variations on the red paint splatter showing Vic Mackey in blue. Said Gibbons, "It was about clearance in the different mediums, because some places wouldn't clear the red," due to it evoking blood. In fact, Daws noted, "In New York, I think we ended up going with blue [for the print campaign]."Said Gibbons, "Some places we went with the blue and we liked them both, because the red and blue were kind of the police lights."

Click here to see our full gallery of concept art for

The Shield: Season 5

Continue to Page 2 for The Shield: Season 6 print campaign.