G.O.A.T Movies

After having read White Space is Not Your Enemy’s “Design Basics” excerpt, I immediately jumped to the idea of movie posters. These are the images and visuals you may see posted outside theaters or advertised online. They serve many interests to help promote the movie among fans and non-fans alike. Accordingly, in order to have an effective movie poster, its presentation must capture and create interest for any particular viewer. Thus, simple design basics, as explained by Golombsky and Hagen, are very important to a poster’s success.

I want to look at two very successful films and one (from each) of its official movie posters. First, The Big Lebowski, which has become a cult classic having generated an intense following among fans, has a deceptively ostentatious poster. However, it does seem to avoid many of the “13 amateur layout errors” that Golombsky and Hagen outline. The bowling ball and main cast are clearly the focal point of the poster, with a design to lead the eye outward from there.

The poster does not have cluttered corners or a busy background, rather a simple bowling lane and carpet to serve as pseudo-borders but also play into the themes of the movie. The title is simple and straight, while also aligning with the font of the other less prominent text.

The second poster is from the critically acclaimed movie The Dark Knight. Overall, I think the poster does well to generate interest; it looks awesome, and for Batman fans is like an icon. However, I find that based on Golombsky and Hagen it may have some rookie mistakes. The font seems to be all over the place between the “Welcome to a world without rules”, the title of the movie, and the small text. Aesthetically, the font throws it off a little but not too much. However, the bottom does seem a bit too jumbled. I do understand that there may be requirements from the production agencies, other companies involved, etc. but from a purely visual prospective, the bottom of the poster is an eye sore.

On a positive note, The Dark Knight movie poster does extremely well to create balance through its contrast. Golombsky and Hagen describe these as important principles for design. The contrast between Batman and the dark colors with the burning orange Batman symbol is the obvious emphasis of the poster because of the blatant contrast in color. In doing so, the poster has great balance because Batman himself and the Batman symbol both, I would contend; have about the same visual weight. As a result, the eye can easily distinguish between the two and make a clear connection.

Both posters have their strengths and flaws, but overall they both do well to avoid major errors that Golombsky and Hagen explain. By that token, these movie poster should have had a positive influence on the advertising and subsequent viewing of these films. Had the posters been poorly made and designed with no knowledge of basic design then perhaps success would have relied purely on the thematic effort rather than the comprehensive experience of a movie which includes trailers, hype, and advertising.