What’s with movie posters these days?
That was the question I posed to the design team here at Filament for our most recent design challenge.
Back in the good ol’ days, movie posters were at the height of graphic design. Take Hitchcock’s iconic 1958 movie Vertigo and it's even more iconic, Saul Bass designed promotional poster, or even the poster for the 1991 movie Rocketeer, which likely took some inspiration from the classic, art-deco Metropolis poster from the 1920’s. Anyway you look at it, movie posters used to be cool, like “I’d hang that on my wall as art” cool.
These days, things are a little different. It’s all about which A-list celebrity is in the movie as marketing departments know that the bigger the name, the more people will flock to cinemas, as Paul Squire explains in The Lost Art Of The Movie Poster (And How We Can Find It):
“Now, posters bank on the star image, that recognizable face that urges us to see the movie simply because they’re in it.”
Take the posters for The Rum Diary, Her, or The Words — booooooring, but I guess you know exactly who the studio is relying on to get people into the theatres.
Interestingly enough, this seems to be the biggest issue in North America, where big studios opt to take the safe road when it comes to poster design. Look at these three posters for Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan for instance. I’m sure you recognize the one of the left, but the other two, which were used outside of the domestic market, are so much more interesting!
So, with all of that in mind, we decided to flex our creative muscles and re-design a couple movie posters — the only caveat being that we had to pick one of the films nominated for Best Picture at the 2016 Oscars. That left us with:
Here’s what we came up with…
Kenzie’s Design (The Martian):
“I decided to design a poster for The Martian. First, because the existing poster does exactly what Paul Squire says: “Now, posters bank on the star image, that recognizable face that urges us to see the movie simply because they’re in it,” which makes it pretty boring. Also because it was a great movie.
One line that really stuck with me from the film, which they highlight in the trailer, was the fact that “help was only 140 million miles away.” This got me thinking about distance, which made me think of space radars, which track moving targets and the distance between them in space. This was the jumping off point for my design, which incorporates a radar display with an image from the film cropped into 140 rings, each representing a million miles. The blue circle on the final ring represents “help” back on Earth.”
My Design (The Revenant):
“The pivotal moment in The Revenant comes when Leonardo DiCaprio’s Hugh Glass is (spoiler alert!) savagely mauled by a bear. It’s an intense scene to say the least and the starting point of Leo’s epic journey of survival. I wanted my poster to reference that event, and specifically the trauma associated with it, in a really eye-catching but simple way — ergo the blood-stained claw marks that reveal an image of a struggling Leo, walking across a river bed (don’t worry the “blood” is actually a bunch of overlaid and colour-treated watercolour textures). I also wanted my poster to feel gritty and weather-beaten to reflect that aspect of the film, so there are a variety of really subtle textures in the background that provide that depth and ruggedness (you can see them better in the large scale version).
From a typography perspective I wanted something that was really impactful but also subtly elegant, as the movie, despite its intensity, is at times quite beautiful and serene. The type’s also got an older, classic look to it which works well with the historical nature of the movie.”
Matt’s Design (The Revenant):
“Movie posters were trailers before trailers existed. Leo is dreamy, and a big part of the Revenant marketing machine, but I wanted to design a poster that told more of the story, and let movie fans get excited about more than just the main character.
The journey of Hugh Glass (Leo) through the film is marked by several key events — from the intense opening scene to the defining moment where he’s viciously attacked by a bear. I wanted each of these to be represented, but more importantly, I wanted there to be a feeling of isolation and desolation surrounding those events. With that in mind, each major event is represented by a strong graphic element (double-exposed bear + forest, eagle feather), and then surrounded by negative space to reinforce the tone of the film. Even the strong bold typography feels like yet another obstacle to overcome. From bottom to top, you get to follow the journey of Leo’s character, but you also get to imagine what lies beyond the attack, which makes seeing the movie even more enticing — that’s what posters are for, right??”
Let us know what you think of our designs in the comments or if there are any movie posters you think are in desperate need of a re-design.
