Graphic Design reaches to the mass media in so many ways. One way that I really notice is through movie posters. Now a days, movie posters are becoming better and better. You can tell that more and more research has gone into them.
What got me really thinking about movie posters and their design all started with
V for Vendetta. This poster really had an impression on me. Having gone to design school, I noticed that this poster looked somewhat familiar. I felt as if I were looking at a German propaganda poster.
It is amazing the impact that World War I and II had on graphic design. With this particular poster, it had an even bigger impact. Of course the story was heavily influenced on fascism and totalitarianism, similar to the WWII period, inflicting us in the modern world. So, it is only right to make a movie poster that is heavily influenced on that same idea...right?
Well, this is was the first movie poster that I actually researched, and apparently I was not the only one who was intrigued by it. I learned that the poster WAS in fact inspired by Pre-Soviet/Bolshevik propaganda posters from the Lenin/Stalin era.
Joel Silver, who produced V for Vendetta said that "(he) wanted people to feel as if the posters came directly from the movie, that they were actually in the movie" He wanted the person looking at the poster to FEEL that it were an actual propaganda poster and not just a movie poster. He wanted it to feel real, as if the movie weren't a movie.
So, now whenever I go to the theater, which is fairly often, I really like to study movie trailers. They truly do inspire me to push myself harder than ever. I can honestly say that if a movie poster is really bad, I probably won't go see that particular movie. Just like any design, you want to invoke an emotion where someone wants to know more about it. That is what design is all about. It is there to intrigue your senses, to get you involved.
I have posted other posters besides
V for Vendetta for you to enjoy, and I challenge you to research them. Don't try to find out who did them, but what inspired them. The answers you may find could be more interesting than the movie material itself.