Over the past few weeks I have been working on our summer brief 'Kino 4' - a weekly screen club for classic 'art house' films, animations and cultural documentaries. The brief was to create an identity for the club and design at least one poster for the upcoming October films.
I chose to start with the identity for the club...I researched into the area of film/screen clubs looking at promotional material for them and their identities. One main thing that stood out to me was the use of black and white for the clubs and I found this really gave the 'classic' film club feel and was something I chose to work with. After numerous experiments and development work I designed a logo for the club which although is quite simple is something I have made a feature of throughout the posters. I wanted the identity to stand out on the posters so I have used bright colours to highlight the logo with the colour changing on each film poster.
It did take me a lot of thinking and testing different ideas to come to an idea I felt I could work with and to be something different that I could challenge myself with. I do feel I am quite critical of my own work and I am a bit of a perfectionist!
I have designed a promotional poster for Kino 4 shown below to explain what the club is before the specific film posters would be shown. My main idea was to portray the old, classic feel and looked at the old style film projectors which were my inspiration for the promotional poster. The idea behind the poster is a projection of light 'projecting' the kino 4 logo onto the poster. Within the light beam are images relating to some of the upcoming films and other elements I feel relate to the screen club. The kino 4 logo is the brightest element on the poster to highlight the club. The poster is quite intriguing as it doesn't give too much information about the club away and will make people ask questions about kino 4.
'Kino 4 identity & promotional poster'
I went on to produce a set of posters for the 'Andrei Tarkovsky season,' I chose these three films as they are to be promoted as a season and I could produce the posters as part of a set. I wanted to use this brief to try and challenge myself and as photoshop is one of my weaker areas I wanted to use this and try and improve my skills. I also wanted to try and incorporate photographs in some of the posters as I usually tend to go down the typographic route.
I researched into the films in the season reading reviews and overviews of the film. I then went on to watch two of the films Stalker and Mirror but I found it difficult to find Solaris. I did find the films quite hard to watch as they were Russian with English subtitles and I did keep getting lost with who was who and who was saying what! But I did eventually finish them! Even after watching both films I still do not have a very clear understanding of Mirror and I think it is something I would have to watch more than once to understand. I think this is reflected in the designs I have produced as I have picked out what are feel are main elements within the films to create the designs around.
Stalker is based around the image of the tunnel the trio have to get through to reach 'the zone.' The whole feel of the film was of the unkown...it was a place they were not allowed to go. They didn't know if they would make it through the tunnel and this is hopefully what the poster reflects. For Mirror I have chose to highlight the element of reflection throughout the film in terms of time zones and of changing characters. The reflection of the type in a different font aims to show the reflection of different people and characters. Finally Solaris focuses on the elements of space and the sci-fi feel. Placing the image central on the page surrounded by the darkness to show the mysterious, open space. Adding a glow around the images and type to continue the idea of the projection of the films as seen in the promotional piece.
'The Andrei Tarkovsky season'
I feel my photoshop skills are finally starting to imporve!! x
(with the the help of a great book I have bought "Layers" by Matt Kloskowsi - this is a brilliant book that takes you through step by step of using layers in photoshop and has been a great help!)
