Mirroring Styles

In the Footsteps of Saul Bass

Minimalist Poster Design

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When it comes to movie posters, there is a beauty in a non-cluttered, simple design. One man who had this style down to a T was Saul Bass: the creator of many Interesting posters. In honor of his accomplishments, We were tasked with making a poster of a movie from recent years (2010 or later, to be exact) in his style. 

The first step was defining his style: we narrowed it down to minimal color, two to three key elements, and a paper-cutout style rather than using actual images. (I cheated slightly on this style by using a gradient)

The first element I chose to include from my chosen movie, Super 8, was an alien hand reaching out, shadowed. To make this part, I simply created the outline with the pen tool in illustrator.

Point by point, I got a shape that looked enough like a hand to be recognized as one, but off-model enough to clearly be something not of earth, or alien to us, at least.

Additionally, I used a gradient throughout the poster to mimic the feel of dusk or a heavy fog, giving the poster and unsettling mood to it that mirrors the mood in the film: unsettling and unsure.

A second element I used was the likeness of a train. The train is a key plot point in the movie Super 8, and with the chance to make the train also have resemblance to a reel of film in keeping with the symbolism of the camera, it turned out to work well at the bottom as a kind of lower border. In hindsight, I would have removed the gradient form the train windows and left it a flat white.

The large central camera integrated with the title '8' was the finishing touch to tie all of the elements together, with more foggy gradient in the background to complete the mood. And with this last bit, I had my poster. There are surely things I would change looking back at it, but you can't just continuously correct everything. Sometimes you have to let something fall short to learn from it.

Value Poster

CONSUMPTION:

Not the eating kind, we're talking about the marketplace, here.

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When you think of What you personally value, what comes to mind? Friends? Family? The rain on a warm spring day? Well, regardless of what you thought of, it's likely you're not quite sure how these values affect you and your choices.

Below is a poster I made in InDesign on ten things that I personally value. The picture may not be quite big enough to read, so I will summarize somewhat in a moment. The things you value and like directly affect what interests you and what you will and will not purchase within the context of the market. This is important for those on a branding team to understand, for if their appeal to the masses can't relate to their own personal values, then it will not sell as it would if it connected the consumer to something they already know they like.

To put this into context, imagine you're in a store looking for a new sports drink to try:

On the shelf are two brands of sports drink: one is in a generic plastic bottle labeled "Superdrink" in red letters, while the other is in a similar bottle, but with a label entitled "Ener-life" and a picture of a woman throwing a frisbee for her dog on it. If you are someone who likes to be active and likes pets, then the second drink will probably appeal more to you, causing you to choose Ener-life over the poor Superdrink whose design team obviously was not well trained.

When I sat down to think about it, I decided that things that were important to me consisted of many creative outlets, technology, comfort, and family. This indicates that someone like me would be more driven to buy things that have been designed to appeal to those values more than one that does not. Many people like vastly many different things, which makes appealing to them difficult if your product does not have a set age group or demographic in mind.

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Miniature Typography Lesson

Can't just babble about marketing, let's throw in some design as well

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To be able to make an aesthetically appealing poster, it was important to learn about typography, and how to properly pair up fonts. A well paired set of fonts can bring desirable contrast to your graphic, and add to it's overall tone. On my poster, I went with a basic Helvetica font for the sake of readability. It's a nice, balanced font with many different weights to work with, creating contrast within itself. To oppose the helvetica, I chose a straight, serifed font similar to Charlemagne, but with small caps instead of all caps. It sits nicely on the heading, and sticks out as it should in a sea of sans-sarif fonts.

It's possible to put more than two fonts in a piece, but you must be careful not to add too many, or the relative contrast of one font is decreased by the presence of contrast everywhere. If the entire piece is scattered with different style, one style can no longer stick out, so it's important to minimize your fonts accordingly.