14 Different Types of Movie Poster design ideas with examples

1. Showing Main Characters

There is no solid set of rules to design a movie poster. One thing common in most movie design posters is the display of main characters in the particular movie. The main characters play an important role in the life of the movie since they reach out to a larger audience. Graphic designers love to experiment with photo manipulations on the main characters, so they are portrayed in a bold and stunning manner.

2. Expressing the story-line

A bit of the story-line is clearly expressed in the movie poster designs. It allows the public to understand what genre the film covers. If the writings or photo manipulations are in red or orange colors, one can expect the movie to fall under these genres : thriller, crime, action and more. Expressing the story-line along-with the showcasing of main characters is one of the most important factors in designing a movie poster.

3. Showing Best Movie Scenes (Piqued)

Showing the best scenes in a movie can pique the interest of the movie-goers. So it's highly important to select a scene which adheres to the same. If it's a period movie, then showcasing the main characters in the period costumes would be apt for a movie poster design. If it's an animation movie, then happy characters or an emotion which talks about the movie would make a perfect movie scene for the poster design.

4. Relationship

Relationship in a movie is a very strong emotion. If it's a love theme movie, then the main characters holding hands or fighting would be a perfect scene for a movie poster design. When the story revolves around more than one relationship, then the main characters along-with a few sub characters will speak a lot about the movie.

5. Minimalist movie posters

Minimalist movie poster designs are the new rage in town. Just like the name speaks, it has minimal designs. The movie poster design doesn't speak much about the movie. When you are looking at minimalist movie posters, you are only looking at the style and not much about the design. The theme on minimalist poster designs or mostly based on movie quotes. These kind of poster designs are usually for short budget movie or the ones you come across in Netflix.

6. Attention Seeking - AIDA

The attention seeking movie poster designs are mostly used by pulp fictions and animation movies. Graphic designers use photoshop, illustrator, Indesign softwares to work on such attention seeking movie poster designs. The Indesign software is mostly used for the page layout and typography.

7. Iconography

The iconography movie poster designs, they don't talk much about what the movie is all about. Sometimes they may nit be related to the genre of the movie. Certain images are used like close-up of characters or a plot which doesn't describe much about the movie. Iconography movie poster designs are quite popular in the following genres horror, action, adventure and more.

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8. Optical Illusion Posters

Optical illusion movie poster designs are like a puzzle which is aimed at piquing the interest of the movie-goers. These kind of movie poster designs are very self explanatory. It's usually one image that is easily hidden in the optical illusion posters.

9. With Beautiful Typeface

Most of the Oscar nominated movies have a beautiful typeface. The choice of typeface is equally important in designing a movie poster design. The size, height, weight, color and the choice of a typeface, speaks a lot for the movie poster designs. Justice League, Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman are some of the best examples of beautiful typeface movie poster designs.

10. Standard Color Theme

Sometimes we get the feeling that all movie posters look like, it's because of the practice of standard color themes amongst graphic designers. Darker color themes are used to show an air of superiority, mystery or some important fact. The most popular color themes amongst the graphic designers are orange and blue. Sometimes the movie poster designs are a mix of orange and blue which can be found in action based or sci-fi movies.

11. Pop Neon Colors

Pop neon color movie poster designs are used mostly for pulp fiction and pop culture based movie genres. Bold colors like a splash of purple, green, orange are used liberally around the character's image or across the typeface to pique the interest of the viewers. These kind of movie posters don't talk much about the story-line, but focuses on character revelation.

12. Illustrated or Digital Paintings

Illustrated or Digital Paintings movie poster designs are used mostly for novel adapted movies. It's sometimes used for animation movie genre too. The illustrated movie poster designs were quite popular in the 80's. Currently some graphic designers are bringing back the illustrated movie posters with a touch of digital technology which makes these posters very unique.

13. Mylar / Super Expensive Posters

Some movie poster designs are collectibles, since they are vintage and are considered to be atleast more than 25 years old. Some of the super expensive movie posters are " Metropolis (1927) and it was sold for $690,000 in 2005, The Mummy(1932) sold for $453,500 in 1997, The Bride of Frakenstein(1931) sold for $310,100 in 2009 and more.

14. Glozzy Composite movie poster designs:

This is one the classic movie poster designs and this particular style is name after Drew Struzan. This kind of movie poster design was popular in 1980's and it's currently trending. The first Star wars movie used this kind of movie poster design and till this date they follow this glossy efefect. If it's a supero hero movie, you can expect this kind of movie poster design.