This week in Visual Design class I was tasked to create a fictional movie poster. The design brief was that I could only use my own photographs or I can draw something. Well, I can’t draw, but I have thousands of photographs! But, where do I even start? I knew I wanted to do something with animals (because they’re cute) and I have tons of photos to choose from.

Concept

I found some great photos of my dog, Ava, and my best friend’s dog, Mason. I started brainstorming what my movie could be about while researching poster designs. I decided I wanted to use The Sandlot and Homeward Bound as my inspiration. I loved those movies growing up! But I needed another character..and voila! I found a photo of my niece, staring right into the camera with attitude. Perfect!

I still wasn’t sure how I would piece the trio together. What would their adventure be? I noticed in the photo of my niece, she’s holding a tennis ball and I know I had taken a photo of my friends playing tennis over the summer. A silly, family friendly, movie about a kid and two dogs taking all the balls at the tennis courts! That’s the movie!

Design

I started with a background of a tennis court and cut out the photos of my main characters. I super-imposed them and immediately loved the trio together! Look how cute they are! I liked the look of the background, so I didn’t want to blur it and make a shallow depth of field. I did want to make it seem more dynamic, though. I started adding photos of tennis balls, resizing them, and just throwing them onto the page to see what would happen. It looked like the tennis balls were bouncing around them, like they’d created chaos! That’s where the name of the movie came in. The Troublemakers.

Analysis

Composition

The poster’s composition is not quite symmetrical length-wise, but close! The poster is divided into thirds nicely. The top third has the movie’s title, the center frames the main characters, and the bottom is filled with supporting text. I also achieved a balance between the foreground and background. The foreground has the main characters and the background has a single tennis player. There are also a lot of leading lines on the tennis court that move your eyes around the composition.

Color

The various yellow tennis balls fill other spaces in the frame, creating movement and directing the viewers eyes. The triadic complimentary colors (red, blue, and yellow) make the poster visually pop. Bright and colorful designs are a great way to capture busy kids’ eyes.

Type

The poster is image heavy. The only text on this composition is the title of the film and the bottom text. Since this movie is (sort of) in the realm of sporty, I did try a few blocky, sporty fonts. Initially, I chose the font “Winner” and didn’t feel like it was the right choice. I scrolled around and really liked this font, “Faith and Glory Two”. It looks like a whiteboard marker and is bold. I liked the idea of a rougher font because the main characters are up to no good. But the font didn’t seem too scary for children.

Final Thoughts

I could not figure out a good way to cover up their feet. I knew the bottom text would help, but I needed more. I added a white and grey vignette around the edges of the poster. The vignette made my composition feel like the viewer is looking through the tennis fencing and added more ‘atmosphere’. The poster felt too much like a photo before adding this element and I knew this would be the finishing touch.

It’s not perfect, but I LOVE IT.

This was SUCH A FUN PROJECT! I loved playing around with these photos to see what story I could make out of them. I think overall, the composition came out better than expected and my favorite part are the flying tennis balls. I hope that you enjoyed looking at my design and reading my post as much as I enjoyed making it. See you next time!