HOW TO DESIGN A MOVIE POSTER: TOP TEN TIPS

 

First and formost a poster is not just a piece of artwork, It is a unique design to catch the eye of the perspective viewer. Don't design a poster that is just for you, It should be a design that attracts the interest of the regular person, tell them a little bit about the story, but not give away to much away.

Make the title big. The design should convey the genre and the title at a glance. There seem to be too many posters with overly colourful, small and hard to read titles. Having said that, don't make It massive, it shouldn't dominate the poster and take some time to consider text type and what it says about the film. also what other ways can the text have an effect on the way people view it? could It possibly be involved with the poster design to a greater extent, rather than just being slapped on the top of the poster.

 Avoid things like generic text and stale single screenshots or stills from the movie (unless their done artistically and to an interesting and high standard. 

 Follow the conventions...

Most good movies have a form or specific balance. The image should be striking, eye catching, suit the movie/genre and the text and title should also reciprocate these things. 

 Avoid putting all the actors on the cover. (Unless this is the particular style you are going for. This was a very popular style for film posters of the 70 and 80's but It hasn't really been done for a while (except in photo form). 

Be Bold...

A film poster should have a power to It, so go for a single, strong, clear image that somehow conveys the central Idea/s conflict or problem  in the film. The poster does not need to feature all the actors and locations, just evoke a sense of what the story is, and make sure the design is well executed. 

Avoid too many colours... Most colours work best when the few colours they do have, are carefully considered. Black and white posters with a single colour can also be very effective.

Make sure the genre is clear, If the viewer is confused as to the genre of the film then thats an instant fail. 

Keep the design multi-layered. This will allow for easy chnges to be made over the course of the process.

ALEXIEMARTOV: IDEAS DEVELOPMENT AND DESIGN PROCESS

 This post shows some of my mock ups and practice works for the two AlexieMartov commissions.

This is an early piece i sent to the band to get some feedback. They likeed the media and process but said to develop some simliar ones with crows.

This was another early one for the EP design, very experimental with colours and overlaying a lot of vibrant colour like the band requested. 

Some early colour experimentation with my chosen crow design concept. 

I had numerous colours that I liked but n the end there could only be 4 colours due to the printing processes. 

This is the final outcome for the T-Shirt commission, however I am also developing another T-shirt concept that is more akin to the style of the EP and CD cover commissions. I may be making some small changes to the opacity and the colours/details. I and the band are pretty pleased with the design but agree it just needs a small tweak to reach full potential. 

After some more direction from the band I came up with this design, which they were most pleased with. When Martin (the bands lead guitarist) was a small kid his uncle lived on a farm and used to string up decaying crows to scare away pests and animals from attacking the chickens. I don't know if this process worked but that was the story behind one of the tracks from the EP. They wanted to see three dead crows, each in a different stage of decomposition. 

I'm not 100% sure about the text they have used on the left but It's totally their choice. The AlexeiMartov logo is very good tough and suits their style down to a tea. In the end the band thought the vibrant colour scheme suited their moody psychedelic rock and blues styles well. I am very much looking forward to getting a copy of the vinyl for my collection.  

RESEARCH: FILM POSTERS: GENRE: CRIME AND GANGSTER.

This post looks at gangster and crime film posters over the last few decades. Along with westerns and comedies, Gangster crime movies were some of my favourites from childhood, perhaps because my parants would rarely let me watch them due to the language and violence. Amongst my favourite ever gangster film are 'The Godfather' (of course), 'Goodfellas', Pulp Fiction and 'Reservoir Dogs'. I also have to mention some of the early James Cagney classic gangster films that inspired most of my favourites from the 90's.

RESEARCH: FILM POSTERS: BAD POSTER EXAMPLES

RESEARCH: FILM POSTERS: FAN ART

Many of the designs from the 'Minimalist' and 'Graphic poster' posts were fan art but I managed to find really impressive selection of other fan film poster art to fill another post. There are so may clever designs in this post but my favourite designs are for the films Taxi Driver, The Dirty Dozen, Seven, Clerk, Serpico, and Raging Bull. 




There are a few different styles and some interesting ideas going on in some of these designs. Around Half of these design are in the form of some sort of collage or montage while the others use the imagery of the film a little more cleverly. The 'Raging Bull' poster is so simple in design but works so well you wouldn't change anything in it.