The 12 best movie poster designs of the last decade
Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2024 3:56 am
That is precisely what producers, directors and other people related to the world of cinema would think. Thanks to this, we have been able to enjoy designers and artists putting their grain of sand in these productions, just as we did with the records in our article that reviewed the best covers in the history of music .
There has been a lot of water under the bridge in the history of film posters, but nowadays we can find some very good examples of how different styles are used and of the trends in the world of design today.
We present a list of some posters from recent years that have pleasantly surprised us.
The Wolf of Wall Street
The f***ing best f***ing poster in history, f***ing!
Let's not neglect the forms, but it is a very appropriate way to describe the poster for this Scorsese film.
This poster was a work of the BLT Communications agency, responsible for other works such as Alita or Stranger Things , among others.
One of the legendary scenes in the film takes place in a brokers' office where they listen raptly to a motivational talk by their boss (Leonardo Dicaprio) and then an image of this same setting where the characters find themselves completely losing control.
What we can see on the poster is a frame of that chaos while the protagonist looks defiantly in front of us, summarizing very well the whole mood of the film.
The Revenant
If we analyze the use of color and composition, we can appreciate the general atmosphere of the film and above all the cold. Very cold. Although the poster opted for a portrait of the protagonist instead of the magnificent landscapes, I like the contrast chosen by those red lines against the cold blue of the face and the background. In general, it strongly conveys to me the harshness of the situation and the mishaps that Leonardo DiCaprio had to face again.
After all, this was the film that won her the Oscar, and she had to suffer a lot to get it.
Moonlight
This poster (and many others) was designed by art director Steve Reeves for the agency InSync Plus, which is responsible for other work such as Red Sparrow and Star Wars: The Last Jedi .
It is about the fusion of three faces forming one, that of the protagonist, in the three phases of his life that the story narrates: childhood, adolescence and maturity.
According to Reeves himself, the poster came out on the first try with almost no modifications to the art, just a few color adjustments, which is surprising for someone who works in this industry.
The Grand Budapest Hotel
For this design they played with the shape of an old hotel reception as a way of introducing the actors who take part in the film. The use of colour in general in this film is very interesting, oscillating between warm pinks and reds, and blues. It reminds me a bit of the splendour of ancient Russia with its great aristocratic families.
The typography also accompanies the poster with a classic touch, thanks to the serif, but giving it a slightly more contemporary twist with the shape and the narrower font.
The design of the Grand Budapest Hotel was based on real hotels in Eastern Europe. One of them, the Palace Hotel Bristol, was the inspiration for the pastel pink colour of the fictional hotel.
Mother!
There are several posters for this film, but the most interesting is the one of the protagonist, Jennifer Lawrence, which is illustrated evoking a bucolic image full of symbolism that gambling data vietnam phone number reminds me of Frida Kahlo or Dali. In fact, she is surrounded by flowers but holding a bloody heart in her hands.
These posters caused quite a sensation when they came out and came to us from the hand of James Jean, an illustrator of Taiwanese origin.
The typography, freehand and with the exclamation mark on top, awakens in us a feeling of strength, drama and passion.
Isle of Dogs
Also designed by BLT communications, which in addition to the posters, developed the campaign for social media, videos and other advertising material.
The Isle of Dogs is an animated film directed by Wes Anderson that is set in a dystopian future in Japan, where due to a disease like canine flu all dogs have been banished to an island. I am struck by the influence of Japanese aesthetics in the poster, both in the colors and, of course, and most strikingly, in the Japanese characters that translate both the title and the names of all the actors. Yes, even the Americans.
Likewise, the use of vertical composition used in the poster is associated with Japanese culture and writing.
Birdman
As if it were a classic superhero illustration, with a style more similar to silkscreening due to the flat color spaces, the protagonist of our poster is presented.
Birdman tells the story of Riggan Thomson, a fading actor who can't shake off his obsession with the role that made him famous. The incarnation of the superhero that still haunts his head is literally captured in the design here.
Flatliners
This poster is also quite interesting. It plays with the effect of double exposure, that is, mixing two photographs in the same frame. It also subtly offsets the channels that make up the colour, which is why one can see more blue and the other more red.
Thanks to this effect, the protagonists are shown on the one hand in a state of unconsciousness and at the same time suffering situations close to death, all due to the experiment they are going to undergo.
Drive
This poster caught my attention for two reasons that, in my opinion, are somewhat contradictory. The style of the film is neo-noir, and we can see the mysterious “The Driver”, the protagonist of the film, in a tough-guy pose. But then we find a more 80s pink typography that places us in another context. Although the film is set in a more modern era, it retains certain features of the film noir films of yesteryear.
La la land
This poster was designed by London-based agency All City and was released for the Venice Film Festival in August 2018. It depicts a legendary scene from the film in which the protagonists get intimate after a party.
The scene called “a lovely night” is a very Hollywood-style dance number at dusk. Isn’t that the same streetlight as in “Singin’ in the Rain”? Anyway…
The team focused on reducing the scene to a single image for the poster and capturing that sky so characteristic of the magic hour.
Her
The first thing that caught my attention in this poster was the excellent combination of colours. The red that almost hits us saying 'romanticism' contrasts with the eyes of the protagonist, who seems to look at us with a melancholy and sad face saying "something of this is not going to turn out very well". This apparently simple combination of graphic elements manages to effectively communicate the general tone of the film that was so popular with critics.
Enemy
In this poster we find some subtle clues that reveal part of the plot. First, the “N” in the typography is slightly tilted in italics, which leads us to think of something parallel. Then you complement it with the photo manipulation in which the mysterious city emerges from the protagonist’s head. And finally, a spider, or something like that, that will appear as a symbol later in the story. Well, at that point in the film you already start to suspect.
Meeting your real-life double, usually the opposite of you, is never a good sign. This is the premise of the story told in this psychological thriller directed by Denis Villeneuve .
After having made a brief review of some of the posters that I consider most relevant, we can recognize the importance that is currently given to their design. Not only because they are the letter of introduction and our first value judgment when choosing a film, but also because posters show us great graphic solutions to communicate the complex ideas of some plots. Although this list may seem short, if we delve deeper we will discover a great number of good designs (and some bad ones of course) throughout the history of cinema.
There has been a lot of water under the bridge in the history of film posters, but nowadays we can find some very good examples of how different styles are used and of the trends in the world of design today.
We present a list of some posters from recent years that have pleasantly surprised us.
The Wolf of Wall Street
The f***ing best f***ing poster in history, f***ing!
Let's not neglect the forms, but it is a very appropriate way to describe the poster for this Scorsese film.
This poster was a work of the BLT Communications agency, responsible for other works such as Alita or Stranger Things , among others.
One of the legendary scenes in the film takes place in a brokers' office where they listen raptly to a motivational talk by their boss (Leonardo Dicaprio) and then an image of this same setting where the characters find themselves completely losing control.
What we can see on the poster is a frame of that chaos while the protagonist looks defiantly in front of us, summarizing very well the whole mood of the film.
The Revenant
If we analyze the use of color and composition, we can appreciate the general atmosphere of the film and above all the cold. Very cold. Although the poster opted for a portrait of the protagonist instead of the magnificent landscapes, I like the contrast chosen by those red lines against the cold blue of the face and the background. In general, it strongly conveys to me the harshness of the situation and the mishaps that Leonardo DiCaprio had to face again.
After all, this was the film that won her the Oscar, and she had to suffer a lot to get it.
Moonlight
This poster (and many others) was designed by art director Steve Reeves for the agency InSync Plus, which is responsible for other work such as Red Sparrow and Star Wars: The Last Jedi .
It is about the fusion of three faces forming one, that of the protagonist, in the three phases of his life that the story narrates: childhood, adolescence and maturity.
According to Reeves himself, the poster came out on the first try with almost no modifications to the art, just a few color adjustments, which is surprising for someone who works in this industry.
The Grand Budapest Hotel
For this design they played with the shape of an old hotel reception as a way of introducing the actors who take part in the film. The use of colour in general in this film is very interesting, oscillating between warm pinks and reds, and blues. It reminds me a bit of the splendour of ancient Russia with its great aristocratic families.
The typography also accompanies the poster with a classic touch, thanks to the serif, but giving it a slightly more contemporary twist with the shape and the narrower font.
The design of the Grand Budapest Hotel was based on real hotels in Eastern Europe. One of them, the Palace Hotel Bristol, was the inspiration for the pastel pink colour of the fictional hotel.
Mother!
There are several posters for this film, but the most interesting is the one of the protagonist, Jennifer Lawrence, which is illustrated evoking a bucolic image full of symbolism that gambling data vietnam phone number reminds me of Frida Kahlo or Dali. In fact, she is surrounded by flowers but holding a bloody heart in her hands.
These posters caused quite a sensation when they came out and came to us from the hand of James Jean, an illustrator of Taiwanese origin.
The typography, freehand and with the exclamation mark on top, awakens in us a feeling of strength, drama and passion.
Isle of Dogs
Also designed by BLT communications, which in addition to the posters, developed the campaign for social media, videos and other advertising material.
The Isle of Dogs is an animated film directed by Wes Anderson that is set in a dystopian future in Japan, where due to a disease like canine flu all dogs have been banished to an island. I am struck by the influence of Japanese aesthetics in the poster, both in the colors and, of course, and most strikingly, in the Japanese characters that translate both the title and the names of all the actors. Yes, even the Americans.
Likewise, the use of vertical composition used in the poster is associated with Japanese culture and writing.
Birdman
As if it were a classic superhero illustration, with a style more similar to silkscreening due to the flat color spaces, the protagonist of our poster is presented.
Birdman tells the story of Riggan Thomson, a fading actor who can't shake off his obsession with the role that made him famous. The incarnation of the superhero that still haunts his head is literally captured in the design here.
Flatliners
This poster is also quite interesting. It plays with the effect of double exposure, that is, mixing two photographs in the same frame. It also subtly offsets the channels that make up the colour, which is why one can see more blue and the other more red.
Thanks to this effect, the protagonists are shown on the one hand in a state of unconsciousness and at the same time suffering situations close to death, all due to the experiment they are going to undergo.
Drive
This poster caught my attention for two reasons that, in my opinion, are somewhat contradictory. The style of the film is neo-noir, and we can see the mysterious “The Driver”, the protagonist of the film, in a tough-guy pose. But then we find a more 80s pink typography that places us in another context. Although the film is set in a more modern era, it retains certain features of the film noir films of yesteryear.
La la land
This poster was designed by London-based agency All City and was released for the Venice Film Festival in August 2018. It depicts a legendary scene from the film in which the protagonists get intimate after a party.
The scene called “a lovely night” is a very Hollywood-style dance number at dusk. Isn’t that the same streetlight as in “Singin’ in the Rain”? Anyway…
The team focused on reducing the scene to a single image for the poster and capturing that sky so characteristic of the magic hour.
Her
The first thing that caught my attention in this poster was the excellent combination of colours. The red that almost hits us saying 'romanticism' contrasts with the eyes of the protagonist, who seems to look at us with a melancholy and sad face saying "something of this is not going to turn out very well". This apparently simple combination of graphic elements manages to effectively communicate the general tone of the film that was so popular with critics.
Enemy
In this poster we find some subtle clues that reveal part of the plot. First, the “N” in the typography is slightly tilted in italics, which leads us to think of something parallel. Then you complement it with the photo manipulation in which the mysterious city emerges from the protagonist’s head. And finally, a spider, or something like that, that will appear as a symbol later in the story. Well, at that point in the film you already start to suspect.
Meeting your real-life double, usually the opposite of you, is never a good sign. This is the premise of the story told in this psychological thriller directed by Denis Villeneuve .
After having made a brief review of some of the posters that I consider most relevant, we can recognize the importance that is currently given to their design. Not only because they are the letter of introduction and our first value judgment when choosing a film, but also because posters show us great graphic solutions to communicate the complex ideas of some plots. Although this list may seem short, if we delve deeper we will discover a great number of good designs (and some bad ones of course) throughout the history of cinema.