Design Brief
The objective of this project was to use Adobe Photoshop compositing tools and techniques and multiple original images to design print and digital versions of a movie poster. The movie poster could be for an existing movie or a fictional movie concept.
Design Solution
For this project, I designed a movie poster for a fictional movie, Cousin Itt. In this parody of Steven King’s It, the Addam’s Family favorite takes on the role of antagonist Pennywise. My first movie poster composition was inspired by the original It poster design, which features Pennywise, the child in the yellow raincoat, and the red balloon. I used many original images, including one image generated by Adobe Firefly, to create the three primary composites and additional variations for this project.
The scope of this project included two vertical Cousin Itt movie posters, a horizontal billboard poster, a desktop Cousin Itt home page, a mobile movie poster and Cousin Itt home page, a movie party Instagram post and admission ticket, and a Netflix streaming Instagram post. My goal was to create compositions that were both sinister and humorous and that reflected both the original Addam's Family and the original Stephen King movie.
Movie Poster 1
Movie Poster 2
Desktop Cousin Itt home page (above) and Mobile versions (below)
Movie party advertisement & ticket
Netflix Instagram
Design Process
I used many Adobe Photoshop tools and techniques to create the composites for this project, including layer masks, adjustment layers, blending modes, smart objects and filters, transform tools, and retouching tools. Because finding high resolution original images was often challenging, I generated a hand in box image (to represent Thing Addams) using Adobe Firefly, and then I modified this image further in Adobe Photoshop.
In the early versions of my movie posters, I modified an image of the original It movie title to create my title for Cousin Itt. Eventually, I decided to replace this modified image with my own typography. In Adobe InDesign, I explored many typefaces and type layouts and decided on a combination of Espiritu Regular and Condensed with Cousin and Itt stacked vertically. I then created a catchy tagline that stated when the movie would be released. I used a limited color palette of black, white, and red for this project.
