Graphic Design Saul Bass Horror Poster Project

Horror Poster Research 

Horror Poster Brainstorms 

I decided I was not going to do either of these films as I wanted to do Friday the 13th so decided to do a separate mind map for it.

Moodboards for Friday the 13th movie

Y chart for Friday the 13th movie

Selection of suitable fonts for my movie title 

Key Objects sketches

Design Ideas for Horror Poster 

Layered by layer breakdown for final poster design

Final rendered Saul Bass horror poster design

Design Report 

For my unit 3 Graphics work I had to design a Saul Inspired horror movie poster. Before I started doing any sketches or deciding on what film I was going to do I gathered up some research on general horror posters and also Saul Bass inspired horror posters. I used this research to help me distinguish what elements a Saul Bass horror poster needed and what elements I didn't need because Saul Bass was known for being a minimalist designer so for his posters he only used a couple of objects and about two three colours and that was what I was aiming for my horror poster. The poster research also help me get a general idea of what makes a good horror poster and what doesn't  like for instance the ‘Drag Me To Hell’ horror poster showed the element of a demon trying to pull a women down to the underworld by hair necklace this idea was done well because it emphasise the name of the movie which is ‘Drag Me To Hell’.

After I done my horror poster research I did a horror poster brainstorm on what films I was going to choose and do my Saul Bass inspired horror poster on, the three films I picked for this brainstorm was ‘Cabin In The Woods’, ‘The Hitcher’ and ‘Evil Dead’. For each film I wrote about the key scenes that were iconic in the film and also the key objects that were also presented in the film. After I did that I also looked for the images that was related to the each points I made for each particular film, like for instance ‘The Hitcher’ I wrote about the key scene in the film which was when the hitch-hiker ties the women’s boyfriend to the two trucks and then uses the truck to rip him in half. I also presented a screenshot of the scene where the women’s boyfriend is getting ripped apart. This gave me a visual idea of how the scene happened which later on could have given me inspiration for my horror poster. I also added each of the key vehicles in the film because in the film cars was used a lot throughout as there were a lot police car chases and also the hitch-hiker drove a car that was iconic in the film which was a Pontiac Firebird. I listed all the key images related to the film just like I did for ‘The Hitcher’. When I completed this brainstorm I decided I was not going to do neither of the films but thought ‘Friday the 13^th’ would be good  film to choose as it is a well-known iconic horror film with a lot of history behind it as there was many films that were done in the past. To justify this decision I decided on doing a separate brainstorm for this film involved doing the same similar information I found for the other films and also added the images relating with it, a companied by a Y chart split up into sound, feeling and looks.

When I finished the ‘Friday The 13^th’ brainstorm and the Y chart, I moved on creating my moodboards. I structured my moodboards by page one being on the theme horror, page 2 being on the key objects of the film, page 3 being on the key locations the film takes place and then finally page 4 being on the colours presented in the film. This helped me because I had a good idea on what elements was in the film which I could add to my design. As soon as I got done with that I got started on my design sketches I drew out all of the Friday the 13^th objects I could find from Jason’s mask to his machete. After I got finish drawing my sketches I chose which ones I would use for my final poster, I chose the mask, the machete and the Jason’s Voorhees tombstone.

After I was done with my sketches I got starting on which fonts I was going to use for my final poster, so I went on a website called ‘Dafont’ and collected 15 fonts that was going to be suitable for my movie poster. I also wrote I couple of sentences on why I chose this font and how I can apply it to my design.  As soon as completed that, I decided on which font I was going to use so I chose the iconic Friday the 13^th font as I knew the audience that view this poster would know what font it is as my poster is not meant to show much detail emphasising the Saul Bass style. As soon as I finished deciding on what font I was going to use I got starting on designing some draft poster I did one of them by hand and did the other two on illustrator, I decided on incorporating some of the ideas from each of the draft posters then I blended them into one final poster. In completing the final poster I also did a layer by layer breakdown in how I made my final poster from how I created my silhouettes to the way I presented them on my design.

From designing my Saul Bass horror poster I discovered that it wasn't really hitting the nail as a Saul Bass inspired poster I believe that if I used more of a Saul Bass style font than the original Friday the 13^th font it would of looked better. Also if my silhouettes looked a bit more crooked than perfectly shaped I believe it would have been more of a Saul Bass inspired poster. The colour schemes I used for my design worked well for my poster because there was a lot of blood in the film as it was a slasher film. In the future I believe if I have to do another Saul Bass inspired poster that I should keep it a lot more simple and avoid using over detailed objects as Saul Bass would have done the same.  

Khalid Abdigaheir Graphic Design College Work

Saul Bass Inspired Posters

Movie Brainstorm 

These are the three types of movies I was going to do my Saul Bass style storyboard on. I listed for each movie the different types of objects that was in the film I could use to create my storyboard.

Y Chart Brainstorm 

After I did my Brainstorm I decided I was going to do Indiana Jones. I made a Y chart brainstorm that was split into feel, look and sound, in each subtitle I wrote all the types action that was presented in the movie that showed these subtitles. 

Handmade Title 

After I completed my brainstorm and my Y chart, I started sketching out my handmade font that I was going to use for my Saul Bass inspired movie storyboard. I also used adobe illustrator and started messing around and experimenting with my movie title with some of the handmade fonts they had.  

Mood Board

After I done my handmade title I decided to do a mood board on all the props, clothing and colours that were presented in the film Indiana Jones. I used this mood board to help choose the objects and props I was going to use for my Saul Bass inspired storyboard.

Sketches of Indiana Jones objects designed in a Saul Bass style

When I chose the objects I was going to use for my storyboard, I started on sketching some of the objects in the film in a Saul Bass so I can put it into my final piece. Out of those sketches I decided I was going to pick three of them the hat, the whip and the holy grail.

Initial Storyboard

When I chose the three objects I was going to use on my storyboard I started drawing my out my rough storyboard. I decided I was going to do a basic scene of Indiana Jones getting chase by a boulder but then spots out the holy grail on a stand that says 'fresh water', tired from all of the running he stops to drink from the holy grail, while he is drinking he realises he is still is getting chase by the boulder and starts running again. I sketched this out on a storyboard template then decided I was going to do the final piece on adobe illustrator as a vector design.

Final Storyboard

Finally I did my final storyboard on adobe illustrator, as Saul Bass design are meant to be simple I only picked three colours for my storyboard red, white and black I also added credits as it was meant to be the opening credit scene to Indiana Jones the last crusade.