Unit 03 Ideas and Concepts

Saul Bass Design

In this unit I was introduced to Saul Bass, a man who designed a new type of poster for films, which had made him a legend in the eyes of the industry. Saul Bass' design were so popular that they had revolutionized the way films were shown in posters. Saul Bass created minimalism posters, which would consist of objects that are reconised from a film, for example, the batman symbol.

http://meetinthelobby.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/BTTF.jpg

For my attempt to recreate a Saul Bass poster I must understand what it is that makes a Saul Bass poster. So I had done some research on Saul Bass and had created a mood board on some fan made/inspired posters to get a further understanding into the Saul Bass Design. I had found many fan made designs from 'Spartacus' to 'Pulp Fiction'. By creating this mood board. I had found a deeper understanding into how Saul Bass style worked, with it's minimalistic design and simplistic text font, this had allowed me to progress further on with my work. I like creating mood boards because it allows me to get a deeper understanding into the chosen subject and will allow me to build some ideas from my imagination.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMTq4S3O8cM
I like this title sequence because of how much it is alike the original intro to Game of thrones. It portrays important parts within the story line whilst using the Saul Bass design. The use of Dragons, Wolfs and castles give me the idea that ‘Games of thrones’ is going to be about action packed fighting between animals and men for the struggle for power.  The use of Saul Bass as a minimalist and creative style is also why I like it, as it is easy to take in and to understand. Some of the Saul Bass designs have inspired me on how I made my own Saul Bass Title sequence.

I then began to create my text style for my chosen subject, which was 'Mrs. Doubtfire' until I had changed it to something I had a better understanding of. That subject then became 'Warriors Orochi 3'. As I tried these different type faces I had found that each one would give off a different feel to how the film may be portrayed and had allowed me to contrast and compare for my final 5 designs.


Firstly I believe that objects displayed in the poster is a huge part to the Saul Bass design as it gives of a sense of understand to what the film is about. Secondly I believe that the typeface used also has an effect on how the poster will be perceived. I began to look at minimalistic type faces and experimented with them for my 'Warriors Orochi 3' Design. I looked at fonts on 'www.Dafont.com' and tested the ones that I believed were minimalistic and simple to see if it worked well for my chosen title.

Warriors Orochi 3 Final Typeface

After Finishing creating the type face, I needed to create a mood board in order to generate ideas and give other the overall feeling for the Saul Bass title sequence. I believe that this is a good way to become inspired in creating Saul Bass scenes, as it reminds me about the topic that I had chosen to do.

'Warriors Orochi 3' mood board.

I started creating some objects for my version of Saul Bass' design. Since my chosen title had a lot of important characters in it, I had to create a lot of objects. These objects I had first sketched to get a idea to how the may look when I go to create them and then I later created them using Illustration. I like this method as It allows me to try to make and change ideas before I create and define them in my final version.

Object designs for Warriors Orochi 3.

After creating these objects I had begun testing these objects against different colours and styles as shown below. To do this I had copied a object from my test sheet and then changed the background to a different colour. I had done this to see what effect I could get from the objects placed against different backgrounds. What I had liked about this is that I was able to create new and more ideas simply by moving the objects in several places and applying a few effects.

After all the objects and text fonts had been created, it was time to move onto the frame by frame title sequence planning. For the subject 'Warriors Orochi 3' I had chosen to show some of the most important parts of the game and also important characters as well. It could be agreeable that my chosen frames have signs of repetition, but I believed that this was the best way to show these images. I liked being able to create a story via a story board as it gave me a insight into how the final project will look in the end. The images below are the Illustration design of the same mood board, but this time with colour as well.

Horror poster Research and development

After finishing this project, I was tasked at advancing my skills using Illustrator. by creating the pear below, I can use these skills in the future if I ever need these types of techniques. To create the pear I first needed to create each individual object within the image below. Following a guide given by my teacher I was able to recreate the pear below.

Illustration test.

First I had to create a arrow so I chose the line tool and had drawn a line. After drawing the line, I went into the line properties to change what would be on the end of each line. At one side I had chosen the Arrow head and at the other I had chosen the arrow shaft. The arrow shaft was too small in it's default form so I had changed it's stroke size to 3.

Upon completing the arrow I then needed to cut it in half using the knife tool so that I could later place it in the pear to give off the illusion that the arrow had gone through the pear.

I then began creating the leaf, to do this I had to use the pen tool and start at the connecting point of the leaf and then click and dragged at the opposite side to give the leaf a more rounded look. I then had to draw the leaf back round to connect it to the starting point.

After creating the leaf I then started on making what was connecting the leaf to the pear and using the same technique as the leaf , I could successfully give of a rounded look to the object.

After creating the arrow, the leaf and the stem of the pear it was time to do the pear itself. Following the guide and using the techniques I have learnt before, I began creating a rounded pear. I started creating the pear at the lowest bite mark and went on from there, using the dragging technique, I could create a cartoon-ish bite mark in the pear.

After finishing the pear I had to give it some colour, so I chose to use colours from the swatches menu that were: Pear body, Pear stem and Pear leaf. I applied the colours to the specific objects that I had made.



Mood board development
After finishing the tutorial I went on to creating 3 mood boards for each film I had chosen, in order to understand the films down the basic level. I did this by looking at colours and textures, feeling and art style, and items and props used within those films. By doing this research, I can improve greatly on my final product by generating ideas in the future.

 Looking at both films I had found that a similarity of dark colours were used within the films. It may be useful to use the colours  when creating my final designs. These images usually consisted of  dark browns, blues and sometimes green. Types of colours are Taken into consideration when used in films to display a certain mood.

Certain locations in these films had  dramatic differences from each other, even though that they are from the same genre. This is because of the monster they try to depict from it. The thing's alien, is an alien that likes warm areas and was unfortunately frozen in an Arctic like place, which sets the seen perfectly as the alien can hide within human bodies to keep itself warm. As for 'Dawn of The Dead' the zombies are shown to roam wondrously and are shown in multiple locations throughout the film. This is shown because the creators of the film wanted to portray that no place is safe from this new horror that opposes the protagonists. This mood board can be used to generate ideas for objects used within the posters that I am going to create.

These films had a lot of props and equipment that defined the very films, as 'Dawn of The Dead' had the Assault Rifles, the jumpsuits and the helicopter and as for 'The Thing' had; wooly coats that are used to keep the characters warm, which is what the alien wants and also the iconic flamethrower used within the film.

Horror poster Research & Design

In the next project I had to create 2 movie poster designs for the horror genre using the Saul Bass design from earlier. Before I could start creating the designs I first needed to do some research into what type of typefaces worked well in horror movies and there where a lot of similar fonts, for example, the font type with blood dripping from it. Below I have collected 19 different type fonts that are inspired by horror genre. From the 19 I had picked 5 of them that I like the most with explanation on why.

After talking about why I like those typefaces, I imported them into Illustrator to edited them. I had created 25 different types, 5 of each typeface tests to see which looks the best and how I could improve on final design. To create these different types of font I had gone through Illustrators effect tab to get different effects off each font. I also tried moving letters and removing parts off letters to see if it made it more of an effective typeface.

Before creating the final pieces I had to create some thumbnail type designs for both films that I may use towards the final designs, I had chosen to create 6 designs that may be effective to use in the final 2 designs. In this photo I have chosen iconic scenes that appear within 'Dawn of the dead(1978)' as I believe those particular scenes would bring a sense of nostalgia towards those who's seen the film. 

These 6 designs are my final & prototype designs for the final product posters. Most of them feature the minimalist style design of Saul Bass and some I believe to have too much detail in them to be considered towards the Saul Bass style. Although some are like this, I have had people like them more than others, which means that they could be more effective but they do not follow the style. My best designs as shown above went through several design changes as I believed that they could be improved.

Liam Norman                                                                                                                      Liam6478.blogspot.co.uk

In unit 3 I was asked by my teacher to create horror posters in the Saul Bass minimalist style. I chose Dawn of The Dead and The Thing for my movie posters. I chose Dawn of The Dead because it was a popular movie and my knowledge of zombie films was quite large so I believe that it was an advantage to when I do my research.  I had also picked the thing because of my interest in alien movies, which motivated me in doing some research into the alien genre.

During my research I had noticed very similar visual aspects in Zombie and Alien genre horror posters. The aspects were the usage of red colouring and images of zombie like creatures in the zombie posters. I incorporated this common aspect into my posters by putting red behind my title in one poster and then changing the colour of specific words like “Hell” and “Dead” to attract the audiences’ attention on those words. For the movie ‘The Thing’ I have had a look at alien visual aspects that were common. I have found that alien film posters the colours green and black are common colours used and a ‘Martian’ is a common image across sci-fi posters. I have used these common visual aspects in my own posters by using black as a colour for not being able to see into the unknown.

To produce my poster I first had to do research into typefaces used in horror genre’s, I was able to do this by looking onto a website called ‘da font’ and had a look at several pages of horror fonts and had chosen the best ones for further research. After collect 19 typefaces I had talked about the ones that I had liked and why. I liked these fonts because of certain effects on the fonts such as scuffs or corrosion marks on it and the effect that they can give off. As a scuffed title could give off the impression that something has been worn over it meaning that there are signs of activity. After altering the typefaces with different designs I began doing research into currently existing posters and had found that on dawn of the dead poster there are zombies almost on all types of film posters. As for the movie ‘The thing’ the most common imagery is snow and a man in a jacket but it is not clear who it is, as an unknown light lights up his face. After doing my research into these two films I then decided to create a sketched version of the final design consisting of twelve ideas for each film. Three ideas from sketched went through to the final design for ‘Dawn of the Dead’ and two for ‘The Thing’.

I began with ‘Dawn of The Dead’ for my final design and started with my interview design, which portrays the opening scene to the film. It took me awhile to create a desk shape and I had to delete and restart the desk as I could not get it to shape I believed that people would understand. I originally had the desk grey with black outlines, but as this was not Saul bass design I had decided to change it to a full black fill. I then drew an oval underneath the desk to give the audience an impression that there is a light shining over the desk. After I had begun creating the characters from the film that speak at the start of the film. I had found drawing their arms very hard as they would overlap each other and cause the character to be see through. In order for me to fix this had to draw the arm on a separate layer. I then began drawing hair using the pen tool to give them more of a detailed design. This poster was later scrapped as I had drawn more posters that follow the Saul Bass design more than this one. I had kept the poster as evidence of my research and development.

I believe that my final design is effective, as I have used white space to focus people’s eyes on the slogan so that they would become more interested in the poster. This poster was later chosen as one of the 9 finals that people liked the most. People have said that the reason they had like the design was for the silhouette town and the snow, which draws you towards the slogan.

If I was to do this again I believe that I would take more time into doing the research and more time into the development of the final designs, as I believe that most of them were lacking potential. I believe that my overall grade to this unit is a pass.