Poster research & Alternative design research
To help inspire visual and conceptual ideas I will gather a broad range of past and current poster designs along with critical analysis. To help me think more out of the box I will take inspiration from more outsourced aspects like alternative design work and maybe non artistic/creative influences.
The majority of design work will be successful examples. But I will include one or two examples of unsuccessful design work, this will help me avoid pitfalls in creating unsuccessful design works.
Below is a poster created by Casimir Fornalski for the Alien film, found on the alternative movie poster website. Our limitations are 2 color plus stock. This could be done with 2 colors but has a range of tones through multiple block color application and gradients. The composition is what makes this piece successful though. Keeping things minimal not only aids in impact drawing more attention to the beautiful image but it also aids legibility of the typographic information as there are no visual distractions going on. The reversed out white type centre aligned to the centered image works perfectly within the poster frame composition. There is a perfect balance of negative and used space. The wide tracked "Alien" header makes use of the vast amounts of space available too drawing a fine line between unreadable type and readable type due to large amounts of tracking. The subhead contrasts nicely with smaller closer tracked typography. In terms of concept this poster is quite literal to the film, it simulates the birth of the alien in the film.
Here is an example of a Batman Begins poster by Julien Perez Here is an example that looks to use halftone dots and a simple 2 color scheme but shows how complex 2 colors can actually look. The contrasting 2 tones within the black and white split creates an interesting visual and abstractly connotes Batman's everyday life and his alter ego superhero self through this black and white tonal contrast. This shows how a more out of the box concept can work to visualize a film in a more abstract sense. Like the rest of the bellow posters this is from alternative movie posters website.
Here is a poster of one of my favorite films Blow created by rocco malatesta. This poster visualizes and sums up the film in a very abstract sense. It denotes the shipment of cocaine through the aircraft he uses in the film, the tally chart visual created to me links with how many chances he blows within the film before he receives a prison sentence and loses all his family and friends. A rhetorical quote based on something Johnny depp says in the film forms the subhead of the poster wich to me makes the viewer intrigued into what "was worth it". This use of type and language is something that I will consider if the films content allows. Drawing the viewer in through image and intriguing them through a caption or a quote summing up the whole film.
This poster created by Sad Disco for the boat that rocked is a 3 color print but could b carried out effectively with 2. The imagery has an obvious connotation of music through the abstract representation of a guitar, but this guitar frames up the other main element of the film. The boat thats used for the pirate radio station. An interesting merge of 2 main elements of the film in a quite abstract out of the box visual. I like how everything appears central aligned to the poster with a slight offset header representing an abstract visual of "Rocked". An interesting subtle little visual, subtle little visuals and concepts is something I want to hopefully experiment with. As having a high impact image is good but subtle little details are what creates an overall solid design.
Here is a poster created for the film The Departed which I haven't seen so can't really comment on the imagery used and its relevance I just liked how the 2 contrasting primary colors red and blue work together with subtle contrasting colored bullets. Again a nice attention to detail, I like how the image is what draws the viewer in with the typography been more subtle and a standard hierarchy presented in a simple chronological order of Header(Film name), sub header(Date & Actors) and body copy (Film info). The subtle manipulation of type is nice though, it compliments with the simplicity of the image and has a certain quirky aesthetic to it much like the coloured guns.
Here is a poster for Despicable me by stefanospalluto. I chose this poster entirely for its humor factor, the aesthetics are nice though there simple and the Minions seem to frame in the centered typographic information and the clever illustrative type with the contrasting silhouette. I like how an animated character has been simplified down from all its computer generated detail to a very tonally flat and simple vector image yet it creates more impact than what a photographic image would make? This strengthens my though of simplicity can aid in high impact visuals if executed properly. The colors used in here are so well known and linked with the film they instantly denote minions, this poster would work effectively without the typography and even without the minions eyes. Simple bean shapes yellow outlines with the blue background and the orange type would work well enough due to the popularity behind this film. This popularity has recently been aided by music artist Pharell and his involvement with the music and his clothing range Billionaire Boys club creating designs inspired by the film.
Here is a more current film that could be made with a 2 color screen print. The imagery denotes 2 main aspects of the film. Money and drugs. Within the patriotic american flag. This could have political references to money and drugs and its links with United States or it could be more literal than that and just represent americas Wall Street and how the stock market was lead by drug in fueled stockbrokers. The message can be interpreted in many ways, and through such a simple image this is an interesting outcome of the design. Presenting a visual concept that can be interpreted in many ways creates conversation and in turn popularity and word of mouth of what the film could be about. Again visually the centre aligned type & image is happening again.
Here is a film I have never heard of but its called Dr Dtrangelove and the poster was created by Jason munn. It shows how well executed a simple 2 color scheme can be, and how powerful paper stock (Background choice) can be. Again a pattern is popping up for well composed and laid out poster designs. Centre aligned imagery and typography with the image element bleeding off from the central horizontal spine of the poster. In this case the phone wire leading off the bleed of the top of the page. This seems to make the eye chronologically follow the imagery down which leads to the typography. This aids the designer in terms of hierarchy meaning they can depend on the image to lead the eye in to typographic information rather than using type weight or size to cause impact. This meant that the designer could use more subtle typographic choices aiding the subtle feel of the whole composition. The soft tonal range with the pastel red hues work perfect with the subtle delicate typography. If this design had a bright white background and heavier typography I feel the type & image would visually clash due to a strong contrast.
Design taxi have an amazing range of simple modernist and minamilst posters created by Poland based designer Michal Krasnoposki. His philosophy for design is the less is more attitude wich is what I have been briefly touching on in my analysis of other movie posters and there success.
These posters present simplified down visuals of aspects of the film within a set grid. 
This use of grid makes me want to base my posters around a set grid framework to create good structure and balance within the composition.
Here in this Pulp Fiction example this grid is used and the same centre justified composition is happening. Using a simple white line to connote cocaine (Drugs been a main aspect of the film) tonally contrasting on a vibrant red background creates quite an aggressive energy through the color connotations of red (Danger, Warning, Anger) and the abstract visualization of drugs. All this through 2 very simplistic visuals to me illustrates very successful design, the typography is subtly presented with a typeface that doesn't stand out and draw attention away from these 2 main visuals, although the orange does merge a little with the red causing a slight readability issue. But the positive tracking of the Pulp Fiction creates easy to distinguish legible characters.
Here is a poster created for the Rocky Movie. This plays on a literal visualization of the boxing glove and the patriotic nature of the film through the visualization of the stars and stripes. I chose this to represent how a well known movie can be promoted through the use of minimal type and very simplistic imagery that can link directly back to the films dialogue. So choosing a certain aspect of the film and visualizing it in an memorable and easy to communicate and remember way is something I need to work out, maybe visualize a certain scene in the film that will link directly back to the film.
Moving off movie posters now I looked into some other promotion materials. This example plays on interactivity with its audience in my opinion. The way the arrow points draws you in and creates a sort of link between the design work and the viewer. This is very effective use of high impact imagery and is something I would like to communicate in my design. This also visualizes how I can screen print a photograph, using half tone dots of one color in sparse or dense groups creates a tonal range and a nice visual aesthetic in turn. In this case this halftone image contrasts nicely with the vector clean cut typography and logo.
This example is a nice example of a 2 color design that can make a mainly typographic poster become an image in its own sense. The typography "geometric" conceptually links with the vector shapes the glyphs are reversed out (Color contrasted) within. The way the design takes up the majority of the negative space but doesn't appear too busy and visually heavy is an effective example of balance between typography and image elements within color choice. If these glyphs were framed up within multi coloured shapes rather than just one color confusion could occur. But by keeping to one color and a constant tone throughout even the complex textures within the backgrounds of these shapes don't hinder legibility or the composition as a while.
The final 2 pieces of design I have included I don't really know much about I mainly chose them due to them been on a file of images I gathered a while back for inspiration. But both examples show successful use of 2 color screen prints and possibility for halftone image use. They also present how more abstract type & image alignments can work within minimal compositions. There aren't many visual elements in both designs but the layout of them don't really follow much structure but still work nicely.
The final design shows how 2 simple images combined together can denote something altogether different. This may be subjective but the presentation of a moon and wolf to me speaks werwolf. This is an interesting thought to bear in mind, my film is called mercury rising. I could try combine 2 images together that as one wouldn't denote much but combined could abstractly denote "mercury rising". A loose concept that I may advance with.
Badly designed posters
To finalize with and contrast with the more aesthetically pleasing poster designs I have included 2 examples of badly designed posters. (My opinion). The first been the movie I am designing the poster for, having a bad piece of design work to advance upon is always more beneficial than trying to advance on something that already functions well both conceptually and visually. What I don't like about this design is the type setting. The header should be the Mercury Rising, this should be the most visible element in my eyes, in this instant its the actors name "Bruce Willis" while this is relevant I feel this is bad use of hierarchy through the positioning of "Bruce Willis" been at the top of the page. The viewer digests the image and quotes before reaching the movie title. The quotes stand out a lot due to the simple contrast of black and white and the typeface is quite bold and heavy so even when it is notices its quite illegible. I do like the contrast of red at one half of the design and white on the other with the reversing out and contrasting typography on the headers. But this is the only visual I like, I don't like how the 2 images are merged together with some fading in photoshop technique probably an overlay mask. I feel imagery needs to be kept quite minimal to create simplistic high impact visuals. Photographic imagers need to be carefully considered and offset large scale photos clash here with the clean cut sans serif typography.
Again that use of photography is even more badly executed here. An over busy montage of images and flames creates visual confusion. There is far too much going on at once and distracts away from the typography making it illegible and unreadable. The angle of the header isn't too visually appealing either. The Hierarchy does work better than the Mercury Rising poster though. the movie title does hit in first with a sub header quote hitting in next through contrasting type size and weight. The use of sans serif typography almost compensates for the busy imagery, if a serif font was used I feel it would create an awful clash between the visuals of the image and the readability & legibility of the typesetting. The colors used are all along one tonal range too, warm yellows and oranges with type contrasting in hue rather than tone. It should have a better tonal contrast which would create better legibility instead its along the same tonal range, it only contrasts within the hue and even that isn't a very strong contrast.
These 2 posters would do well to think more about what they don't include than what they do. Less is more would have worked out a better visual concept here.
Saul Bass posters
I chose to review a selection of posters created by iconic designer Saul Bass who established a house style that many tried to replicate over the years. His use of image is what sets him apart from the rest in my opinion, I love his style of image making. Its very bold and gritty, relying on heavy lines or block shapes within his drawings and they really give off a hand made aesthetic. Theres no precision accuracy within the imagery and typography used making each design he makes more of a work of art with very unique aspects. This style of working really suits screen print which does have much better aesthetics and a more limited edition feel too it.
I like the 50-50 split within this composition, the top half been taken up by a bold, high impact image contrasting on a lighter tone orange hue. The eye is brought in by the image, the reversed out negative type within the body works well with the image due to the hand made qualities of both the lettering and the image.
This very hand made quality of image and type then contrasts with the more legible and uppercase sans serif "outline" type on the bottom half of the design.
I plan on taking great influence from this design for the development of my ideas and thumbnails. I love how the image of the tally chart is the main aspect that communicated the film and takes up a good 80% of the composition with the rest of the typography been neatly displayed at the bottom as the film has already been communicated with this simplistic high impact image. This use of top heavy image to type balance is something I will use in my design development.
Again a quite top heavy image balance, with obvious image connotations that link with the film, I like how the image obviously outweighs the type in terms of volume within the composition but the contrast in tone with the blue and black hues creates a contrast of extension giving off an aesthetic/illusion that the blue type takes up more space within the composition than it actually does. The use of uppercase type and a heavier weight within the sans serif typeface aids this too.
This poster is a much more subtle example to his previous examples I have shown in these analysis. It has a lot more detail within the imagery used, much less high impact "block" us of color with very lightweight and thin typography use within the header (The fixer) with very small almost unreadable body-copy subhead information in contrasting black and much smaller type.
This poster really does provoke lots of emotion through the use of grey, black and white tones creating a very dark and moody aesthetic. This works very well alongside the very "gritty" and bold imagery. There is a list presented in the background to connote the main synopsis of the film explaining the mass loss of life and I feel its faded into the background due to the fact that the germans saw them as disposable objects and saw the jews as nothing but a number giving no regard to there life.
Olly moss posters
This film poster creates much questioning through the very minimal imagery, no typography giving explanation to the poster. I like this mystery though, I have never seen the film Chicago but I feel the cityscape of chicago presented in the image of a toothbrush results in a very questionable aesthetic keeping the viewer thinking and engaged on what the synopsis of the film is about. I like the simple use of color and the high impact used through the very bold and bright tone of red, this could be created in a 2 color print using a nice red paper stock. Lots of contrasting tones are going on here.
Another 2 color screen print possible design influence here. Using red to connote blood and horror which is relevant to the synopsis of the film. I like how the werewolf head is integrated into the negative space of the map of England. I chose this poster to review as It contrasts completely with the image only, minimalist Chicago poster I analyzed before. I see these aesthetics greatly influenced by saul bass. Very gritty imagery using block colors elements.
What makes a good movie poster?
Through my research into movie posters I feel there are a few main aspects to what makes a good movie poster.
One is the visualization of a literal concept or aspect of the film's dialogue in an effective, clear & concise way. For example the Alien poster and its well designed illustration of the Alien in its birth cycle.
A well executed more out of the box concept that makes the viewer of the poster think about whats been communicated to them, one example of this would be the Blow poster, the visualization of a cocaine 5 digit tally representing something been a "last chance" with an intriguing quote questioning if it was worth it or not to connect with this abstract tally visual.
High impact is important, the viewer needs to be drawn in so bold and accurate visuals need to be presented, but overcomplicating design and creating crowded compositions needs to be avoided or confusion is caused. Its better to think of the composition as "little is more" to communicate visuals and typography in a clear and concise manner.
The final idea would be to include more subtle elements into the visuals like the wold of wall street. The film is about the stock market in america, this is presented through the US flag been drawn out with cocaine and dollar signs giving off quite a political message again leaving the viewer wondering why the use of drugs? Connecting with the viewer is important making them guess whats happening through subjective and questioning imagery or amusing them with light hearted images like the Despicable me poster, or maybe playing on patriotism with the imagery presented in the rocky movie posters. Viewers emotions are a good thing to play with.
