I was captivated by Saul Bass's distinctive style, which I believe was ahead of its time. I wanted to pay tribute to him by designing a poster in his unique style.
For this particular piece, I drew significant inspiration from his poster for the film "Vertigo," particularly its composition and typography.
I chose to create a poster for the existing movie, Interstellar (2014), which is one of my all-time favorites, if not the favorite. As mentioned in my previous case study, selecting a subject or film that I am personally familiar with enables me to make more informed creative decisions since I understand the plot well.
This poster serves as a homage to both Saul Bass and Interstellar while showcasing my ability to design diverse posters spanning different time periods, which aligns with the objectives of my EPQ project.
In this assignment, the process began with organizing folders and setting up a document with appropriate dimensions, similar to A4 size. To maintain organization and ensure a smooth workflow, multiple groups and folders were created for various layer types.
The focus was on recreating Saul Bass's geometric style with typography and elements. Using the "Polygonal Lasso Tool," geometric and sharp shapes were created for three key assets: the main character, a watch, and a spiral galaxy, all of which were significant to the film's themes.
For the background, a strong red color was chosen to represent the theme of love, and a polaroid-like outline was added to make the poster more recognizable and true to Saul Bass's style. The outline was created using the box select tool, inverting the selection, and painting it white with the brush tool.
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Typography played a crucial role in capturing the iconic Saul Bass style. A free font called "Chinese Rocks" was applied to the text layer and scaled accordingly. An additional text layer crediting the director, Christopher Nolan, was added for depth and to fill empty space.
For composition, the Golden Rule or Fibonacci sequence was used as a guide, with the subject placed on the left side of the poster and the spiral galaxy at the center. Two watches were added near the galaxy to subtly reference the film's theme of time distortion near a black hole.
However, the poster still felt incomplete, so inspiration was taken from the Vertigo poster to create a background element resembling a hallway of dimensions. This was achieved by creating multiple "portals" using the rectangle shape tool with no fill and increasing stroke thickness. These were duplicated, scaled, and adjusted in position to create the illusion of distance and convergence towards the galaxy. The final result effectively conveyed a sense of the galaxy luring or pulling the elements in, achieving a visually engaging and complete poster.
The cast list was added to the poster, mirroring the placement seen in Saul Bass' Vertigo poster. Ruler lines were used to keep the text aligned, and the lead star's name, Matthew McConaughey, was displayed prominently. The rest of the cast was listed with a smaller font size, using a narrow font called Edingu for a clean, organized look.
With the main elements of the poster complete, it was time to add some final touches. Overlays and blending modes were used to give the poster a vintage and rustic printed-paper appearance. A photocopy overlay was applied with the blending mode set to screen, and RGB curves were adjusted to achieve the desired contrast and visibility. A red tint was also added to the black values for a cohesive colour scheme. A paper crease texture was incorporated, but it was toned down to avoid an overly strong, invasive effect.
As a final twist, a halftone effect was added to give the poster a 1950s feel and introduce more depth to the design. This was achieved by duplicating the base setup/group for the halftone effect from a previous project and tweaking the values accordingly. Ultimately, three different versions of the poster were exported, each with a unique combination of overlays and effects, showcasing the versatility and depth of the design.
