Movie Posters

I was researching movie posters for a project I'm working on and I found a few posters from upcoming movies that I find very interesting.

 

I know that you're supposed to save the best for last, but I'm putting the best first. This poster is amazing and it's not only because I loved Heath Ledger. This poster freaks me out, which is great art-wise because the joker isn't even clear, but he's still scary. I think it was a great decision to blur most of the joker and keep his hands in focus, and the blood effect is really great.

 

I like the Heath poster better, but I think this one is great as well. Using the Batman logo as the mouth was a really great idea. 

This poster is disgusting. The hand coming out of the eye makes my stomach turn every time. It was rendered really, really well. 

For starters, I don't like this picture of Katherine Heigl. She's almost smiling, but not really. They could've picked a better picture of her. But I put this poster in here because I really like that it's basically a typographic poster and I like that all of the type is handwritten. It has a really nice look to it and good hierarchy. 

I find something extremely intriguing about this poster. The silhouette of the gun with the faces in it... most posters like the main focus to be on the big actors in the movie, but I feel like I don't focus on the people in this one. I love how there's a gun... something metal, cold.... and then there's this beautiful butterfly sitting on it. It's a great contrast. And how the orange pops out on this blue palette. The quote is also really intriguing and I like how the credits in the bottom corner are stacked up instead of being in that generic rectangle that most posters have. 

     

And lastly, Penelope. I find these posters very intriguing. The type reminds me of Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas type. The colors in the right poster are very attractive and intriguing. I like how on the left you can see that this girl has a strange nose, but it's just a silhouette so you can't quite tell exactly what her nose looks like, and in the right it's completely covered so you know there's gotta be something strange under that scarf. I find it all very intriguing. 

CRYBABY!!

I just wanted to say that i absolutely LOVE this poster!! It's for the new Broadway play Crybaby. It takes place in 1954 and they made the aesthetic of the poster look like posters made in the 50s & 60s [I'm obsessed with movie posters from the 50s & 60s]. This poster is waaaay better than the poster for the movie version, even though that one had Johnny Depp on it. Ha!

By the way, everyone should go see this play because my friend Chester has one of the lead roles!! =]

Saul Bass

SAUL BASS (1920-1996) was not only one of the great graphic designers of the mid-20th century but the undisputed master of film title design thanks to his collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger and Martin Scorsese.

Even before he made his cinematic debut, Bass was a celebrated graphic designer. Bass studied at the Art Students League in New York and Brooklyn College under Gyorgy Kepes, an Hungarian graphic designer who had worked with László Moholy-Nagy in 1930s Berlin and fled with him to the US. Kepes introduced Bass to Moholy’s Bauhaus style and to Russian Constructivism.

After apprenticeships with Manhattan design firms, Bass worked as a freelance graphic designer. He moved to Los Angeles in 1946. After freelancing, he opened his own studio in 1950 working mostly in advertising until Preminger invited him to design the poster for his 1954 movie, Carmen Jones. Impressed by the result, Preminger asked Bass to create the film’s title sequence too.

Bass created brilliant titles for other directors - from the animated alley cat in 1961’s Walk on the Wild Side, to the adrenalin-laced motor racing sequence in 1966’s Grand Prix. He then directed a series of shorts culminating in 1968’s Oscar-winning Why Man Creates and finally realised his ambition to direct a feature with 1974’s Phase IV.

When Phase IV flopped, Bass returned to commercial graphic design. His corporate work included devising highly successful corporate identities for United Airlines, AT&T, Minolta, Bell Telephone System and Warner Communications. He also designed the poster for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.

To younger film directors, Saul Bass was a cinema legend with whom they longed to work. In 1987, he was persuaded to create the titles for James Brooks’ Broadcast News and then for Penny Marshall’s 1988 Big. In 1990, Bass found a new long term collaborator in Martin Scorsese who had grown up with – and idolised - his 1950s and 1960s titles. After 1990’s Goodfellas and 1991’s Cape Fear, Bass created a sequence of blossoming rose petals for Scorcese’s 1993’s The Age of Innocence and a hauntingly macabre one of Robert De Niro falling through the sinister neons of the Las Vegas Strip for the director’s 1995’s Casino to symbolise his character’s descent into hell.

Saul Bass died the next year. His New York Times obituary hailed him as "the minimalist auteur who put a jagged arm in motion in 1955 and created an entire film genre…and elevated it into an art."

Crew Creative Advertising

Today I'd like to feature some movie posters by Crew Creative Advertising. Visually, I don't find today's movie posters very captivating. They don't really catch my eye. And most people see today's movie posters on websites, not posted in public.

My favorite posters from CCA are their series of posters for the low budget movie Knocked Up. Don't get me wrong- CCA has done tons of other great posters. Their posters for Sweeney Todd and Harry Potter feature some really aesthetically beautiful photographs. Most of their posters use great taglines, nice effects, and have interesting cropping of photos.

The posters for Knocked Up come off as being really simple but when you really look at them, the comedy of the movie comes through.


This is the main poster that was used for the movie:



I feel bad for this guy just because of that tagline. Haha And then the bottom is great- "Save the due date."
[I know you can't read it now, just click the image to see the full size!!]





Then there's these two. Simple images but if you look closely, the body language is great. Her legs closed and his legs wide open. And more great puns- "from the proud parents of the 40-year-old virgin" and "expected in cinemas soon."




And the last one. No great puns but the concept is simple yet captivating. The only complaint I have is that I'd like to change the typography used for the actors' names. It doesn't read as well as it could.

Anywho, these movie posters would definitely catch my eye if I saw them on the street. Make sure you check out http://www.impawards.com/designers/crew_creative.html to see more of Crew Creative Advertising's movie poster designs.

-SPOT NYC-

Thanks to Melina for sending me to spotnyc.com
Most of my friends know that I love Broadway plays and I'd like to do design work for them in the future. Spot NYC makes poster designs for Broadway and off-Broadway plays, as well as other work for plays [tv & radio spots, outdoor promos, web banners, etc.]. One thing I love about the site is that under each piece of art, there's a blurb explaining it so you can know what the designer wanted to achieve & still understand what the poster is about even if you haven't seen the play.



















I love the original poster for RENT and apparently, so do a lot of other people because I've seen a lot of movies and cds that use this exact same design.



















I love the aesthetic of the RENT 10 year anniversary poster. It's a shame that this amazing play is closing soon. =[

"To celebrate RENT’s 10th Anniversary on Broadway, we asked the original campaign photographer, Amy Guip, to contemporize RENT's look for a newer and younger audience. The first collage she showed us felt just right—the hard part was choosing the best color combination!" [www.spotnyc.com]




















They created four posters Avenue Q. This is my favorite. I think it's a great reflection of the play.



















This poster has some pretty sweet illustration. =]

And their billboard is great....

Yee-Haw Industries

Yee-Haw Industries specializes in original art-like products - from letterpress posters promoting special events, music acts and theatre shows to handmade, woodcut, fine art prints.



Yee-Haw Industries has been covering America with unique, art-like products since 1996. Partners Kevin Bradley & Julie Belcher opened up shop from a back-40 barn in Corbin, Kentucky, with salvaged, antique equipment previously put to rust. Their vibrant, folk art, wood cut prints of country music's classic stars, such as Hank Williams, Sr. and Loretta Lynn, caught eyes and told stories.




Handmade posters featured stranger-than-fiction characters, like ass-whooping grocer Cas Walker and daredevil icon Evel Kenevil. Soon, modern music acts, including Steve Earle, Buddy Guy, Trey Anastasio, Lucinda Williams and Southern Culture on the Skids began commissioning promotional posters and album art.



In 1998, having outgrown the bluegrass barn, Yee-Haw moved to a 100+-year-old building on Gay Street in historic downtown Knoxville (just a few doors down from where Hank Sr. was last seen alive). They began offering tours of the Yee-Haw studio in action and mainstreet store to sell their wares.
[taken from www.yeehawindustries.com]

Aesthetic Apparatus

Aesthetic Apparatus is run by Dan Ibarra & Michael Bysewski.



They are located in Minnesota. They started off silk screening limited-edition concert posters and they have expanded into a full-time graphic design studio.



Plus, when you view a poster on their site, there's a blurb on the side about the client and the poster, which can be helpful to aspiring designers.



You can purchase their work on their website [www.aestheticapparatus.com]. The prices are definitely affordable.


CLICK ON A POSTER TO VIEW IT BIGGER!! =]

I love how Aesthetic Apparatus combines images in their posters, esp in the first poster at the top. Make sure to view it bigger to see all the images that are in there!!

Tara McPherson

Tara McPherson is a painter, poster artist and freelance illustrator based out of New York City.


Creating art about people and their odd ways, her characters seem to exude an idealized innocence with a glimpse of hard earned wisdom in their eyes.
















Recalling many issues from childhood and good old life experience, she creates images that are thought provoking and seductive.























People and their relationships are a central theme throughout her work.
[All above taken from www.taramcpherson.com]







I just discovered Tara's artwork a couple of weeks ago and I think that she's an amazing artist. Her poster designs are very intriguing and the typography is well done.
CLICK ON A POSTER TO VIEW IT BIGGER!!













This is a poster for Tara's European book tour. The book, titled Lonely Heart, features her artwork.















I love this poster for The Futureheads because when I was little, I used to put an olive on each of my fingers and then eat them. =]













TARA IS ALSO AN AMAZING ILLUSTRATOR/PAINTER SO BE SURE TO CHECK OUT HER WEBSITE TO SEE THOSE!!!