Design Presentation

I've selected two movie posters to demonstrate good and bad design qualities. The movies are based off popular books, and both target a similar age group. I have seen and read both of the books and movies, in which I have a favorite in each category. The Host is my all time favorite book but I thought they butchered the film, along with the poster. Mockingjay, however, I didn't necessarily like the book, but I did love everything about the film, including the posters. I'm using these examples because both of them had potential to be great, but only one was executed right.

The good
The poster for Mockingjay part 1 is an excellent example of good design. The contrast between the darkness and the light shining on her back is striking. The texture of the armor looks strong and smooth, and the wings are symbolic to the mockingjay, in which she represents. The Gestalt principle of simplicity also comes into play in this poster. Because The Hunger Games franchise is so well known, the poster doesn't even include the title of the film. The simple silhouette of Katniss Everdeen is enough to create an enormous reaction from fans. The fact that the poster doesn't even show her face is a brilliant design choice. The mockingjay pin symbol at the bottom of the poster provides a pop of color and draws your eye to the date in which the film was released. I also love the fact that they didn't include a quote by a critic but instead used words spoken by Katniss in the first official teaser trailer for Mockingjay part 1.







The bad

The Host being my absolute favorite book I've ever read, I was more than disappointed when I saw the official poster. The lack of creativity is alarming, and gives little to no information as to what the film is actually about. The poster is almost identical to the twilight saga posters and if that's not obvious enough, they also provide a sentence stating that the author of the twilight saga also wrote the book in which this film is based off of. Even though they tried to hint that the    alien theme by showing the blue ring in her eyes, it is simply overlooked because of other distracting elements. The blue and orange colors clash and create a confusing setting. The only clear adaptation in the entire poster is the love triangle between the three characters. If the poster would have just stuck with the beautiful simplicity of the book cover (right photo), it would have been successful.