Font & Layout in Movie Posters: The Good and The Ugly

This movie poster of Luhrmann's 1996 appropriation of Romeo+Juliet is a good example of how a simple font can sucessfully set the tone and mood for a movie.

The font style chosen is quite bold and eye catching, and so effectively communicates the melodramatic nature of the story. The movie title has also been enlarged to draw emphasis to it, while this effect of using differing font sizes helps guide the eye along the poster while ensuring there is no doubt that the title is the most important feature. The white chosen for the font was also a smart choice as it presents such a contrast to the background, and this effect could not have been achieved with the dull red used for the actors names.

Overall, as the font can be clearly read and has quite a structured look, it reinforces that the plot is one that relates to a variety of ages. However, although the font could be considered to be 'traditional looking', the fact that it has a slightly textured fill gives it a more decorative edge that is associated more with youth & modernity, and so is really fitting for this movie as it literally reflects the film as a classic tale with a modern twist.

This poster advertising 'The Last Kiss' is an example of how the use of font can also dampen the appeal of a movie.

The Listing of the actors names right above the title of the film contributes to a really 'cluttered' look, and even though the title is highlighted in a contrasting colour, the eye still tends to focus on the on the big blob of lettering and just seems to get lost in it.

Although a grey colour has obviously been chosen so that it doesn't take attention away from the film title, it just contributes to the film looking quite boring as it seems like so much of the poster emphasises the exact same tone of grey. The bright cold blue used for the title adds no warmth to the image and again, instantly communicates quite a hostile mood and really does nothing to engage or appeal to a potential audience.

For such a stark white background, a more dramatic font in different and cleverly chosen colours would have been needed to convey that this film should stand out against other cliche love stories.