Types of Movie Posters

Different types of movie posters

How many of us feel excited and get fascinated after seeing the first look of a movie poster? Every designer who is involved in creating different types of movie posters always thinks of making his design look alive and impart the concept that the whole world is looking and eagerly waiting for the moment.

But has it ever happened to you that you saw a poster and felt a sense of Deja Vu?

The ‘Categories’ of Movie Posters

Well, if you have also felt the same, then my friend it is because there are certain categories of poster design that have established themselves in the industry as the major symbol and designer have followed the same pattern for making a poster of a certain genre.

For example, we have majorly seen the designers using blue and orange colors for creating an action-based movie poster and gradually it become the trend, today most of the posters of action films that we see incorporate blue and orange color in some sense.

1. Mylar

These posters were used in the earlier 70’s movies and are very attractive and colorful. They are recently in the news because of the mylar posters created for movies like Star Wars and Charlie Angeles’. These are very limited edition prints because they are very expensive.

Since early times, it has been an expensive and limited-edition print option which could be developed or released by authorized printers only. This is a special printing developed on mylar plastic sheets.

The process starts with painting/coating the sheet with silver or gold color, later the artwork is also covered with silver or gold color. Sheets have often very small holes that allow color on the base to show up to make it more live. Thus, the poster looks very attractive and makes it pretty expensive.

The first mylar style poster presents the movie “Kill Bill” and this picture shows a sword made of silver foil which is looking pretty live.

2. Teaser or advanced poster

These kinds of posters are basically released during the making of a picture because this does not contain more information but reveals the interesting information to catch our attention obviously.

Their main objective is to generate promotional hype for the movies. Sometimes they are released much in advance before the production of the movies starts, they are generally created when the movie is under process.

This kind of poster may show a tagline or not, it’s not necessary but it contains specific information such as:

• Any symbol related to the movie or just title
• Use of such words like “coming soon” or “in theaters this summer”
• It will show a character or anything more attractive

3. Heads in the sky above and tiny people on a land below

In the film industry, use of big or small heads with large images of movie star faces (sometimes of a couple) or with a small scene (usually at the bottom of the poster) depict some kind and sort of action or activity which is very amusing in today’s scenario.

4. Double sided style posters

This trend isn’t new to the industry but it is back as from the 1950s.

There have been movies such as Zulu and Breakfast at Tiffany that went viral with the experiment of such posters.

There was a time when paper distributors relinquished the delivery and started eliminating sizes etc. then movie studios again started producing better quality and more expensive double-sided poster papers that could produce a more realistic look.

Printing in such style proved to be very effective as the front and back both sides are in print form. Color intensity in the front side is little more than that of the back side, later it is placed on a light box so it produces a more vivid and detailed view.

5. Through the Legs

It reveals the theme of argument and maturity level that is portrayed in the movie posters.

These types of posters sometimes appear to be weird, uncanny, shocking and miss the chance of admiration among the audiences.

6. From the back (often with weaponry)

These kinds of posters often seen in science fiction movies and the weapon commonly used in these types of movies are guns and swords.

We all are thirsty for watching destructive nature in movies. We have a thirsty for cinematic carnage propelled by balletic bullet battles and we don’t think twice about it.

In reality, it’s hard to avoid because of which we see usage of so many guns in our movie marketing.

Guns are quite often used in movie posters, we found 30 releases from this year alone in which the main characters are seen with guns.

7. Back to back posters

This is one of the most popular and recent trends in the movies.

It depicts the part of our heart and reflects our wants and desires in the movies. The star cast of the movies spread their magic by revealing the exciting chemistry between both of them.

8. Lenticular posters

Lenticular posters are printed with different styles that give a feel of hologram style but it is totally different from the concept of hologram. The print process produces a 3D effect in the poster that looks superb in any light.

The process of making lenticular posters is pretty interesting, the image is being cut into 12 strips and then weaved next to next to produce a complete image that looks doubled up, and this process is called “Interlacing”.

To give it a final look, transparent plastic is layered on the image which is made up of dozens of hemispherical lenses called “lenticels” that gives it a 3D appearance.

This option has been used for a  lot of movies such as Jurassic Park: The lost world, Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter, etc.

9. Big text on faces poster

These types of movie posters reveal the different types of emotions (sad, happy, anger, hatred, pain) and the feelings by which one can make a Bollywood and Hollywood movie poster iconic and remarkable in its looks, attention, appeal, and desire.

10. Big eye posters

The Big eye posters are designed to reveal something that is stunning and encourages audiences to look. The movie posters show enigmatic art through waif’s eyes.

11. Re-released poster

When a movie is planned as one after one release then these types of posters are planned. When a movie is considered to be released after the making of the original one the second one should carry an essence of original part, so the campaign is properly planned.

12. Running for their lives

Who all are the people running in the background for saving their lives. Do they belong to normal people like me or are they famous actors and used a stylish way of reflecting their imagination? What do you think?

13. Female in cute or alluring red dress

Highlighting red color makes the movie poster look ironic and it is presented in the movies in such a way which depicts as if it is symbolic of different types of expressions like aggression, and anger.

The use of Red dress images in movie posters reflects a feeling of sex, war, energy, and blood.

14. Blue theme posters

Use of blue color in movie posters is designed for theme based films which are imparting cool and calming messages to the audience. It defines the quality and quantity of relationships that one wants to portray in the movies.

Reflecting blue in the posters gives a sense of peace and mental soothing to the audience.

15. In bed

These are kind of daring movie posters which are not commonly used in the movie. They highlight something which is very strong and bold in concept and target a particular group of audiences.

These types of posters are designed for promotional marketing and their bold unique artistic styles.

16. Rolled vs folded posters

These were very popular in old vintage movies of the 1980’s scenario.

These are not frequently used in the movies but the poster is designed in such a way that one image is inserted inside another image that makes it different.

17. Review posters

A review poster is released in standard size for it and the sole purpose of the review poster is to highlight the positive reviews and comments gathered by the movie.

These posters are totally different from promotional posters as it carries only general detail containing large font types in newspapers, magazines etc.

What we learned till now?

We tried to tell you as much as possible to improve your knowledge because one day you are going to be the part of this industry and as a graphic designer you should know each and every little thing about advertising and promotion.

With the time, knowledge, patience and practice you can easily learn all of it.

Author’s Note

We all love movies of all kinds that involve firearms whether they are based on reality, fantasy, or fiction etc.

Out of the several movies produced, it is very difficult to find the best type of movie posters because of which movie poster debate is on top rage.

Undoubtedly these movie posters are really amazing. Do, take a look at these different types of movie posters and tell us what is best and worst in these movie posters.

Do you want to design such types of posters too?

If your answer is yes then explore our Graphic Designing and advertising design courses to create awesome movie posters yourself.

Also, watch out this video get some designing tips.

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