6 Incredible Movie Posters and the Design Secrets Behind Them (2024)

Recent months have seen some fantastic movies released in cinemas, and they’re often backed up with incredible poster artwork. Here we’ll take a look at some of the bestmovie posters in circulation, and explore the design secrets behind their creation.

Whether it’s Art Deco typography for La La Land or double exposure photography for Nocturnal Animals, you’ll be amazed at how simple it can be to recreate these high-impact designs in your own work.

What’s the secret tomovie posters you can’t look away from? As well as developing a strong concept for the poster, studios employ a range of digital design techniques that take these concepts to the next level. Using InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop you too can create effects withreal cinematic impact. Read on for six mini-tutorials on recreating the effects used in your favorite movie posters.

1. A Double Exposure Effect for Nocturnal Animals

Nocturnal Animals has a moody, film noir feel and the poster artwork follows suit. A cinematic double exposure effect is a popular technique for introducing multiple characters or settings in a stylish way. Using Adobe Photoshop and InDesign it’s easyto replicate this effect.

Step 1

You’ll need a base image for this effect—a large close-up portrait will work well. Ichosethis image of a girl. You’ll also need an image to layer on top. A full-body shot of a person against a white or plain background will help to achieve the Nocturnal Animals effect. Ichosethis image of a man walking.

Open up your base image in Photoshop.

Take the Rectangle Tool (U) and drag across the whole canvas. Set the Fill to a dark color. Here I used an off-black swatch.

Step 2

Duplicate the Background layer, and move it to the top of the layer sequence. Set the Blending Mode of the layer to Lighten and pull down the Opacity to around 90%.

Step 3

Open up your second image in a new Photoshop window. Go to Select > Color Range, and click on the background color to select it. Use the Refine Edge function to make the selection tighter, click OK, and then delete the background.

Apply a Levels Adjustment Layer to the image, increasing the dark and mid tones of the image to create a darker silhouette.

Then select both the image layer and Levels layer and Right-Click (Windows) or Ctrl-Click (Mac) > Merge Layers.

Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) to select the merged layer and Edit > Copy.

Step 4

Head back to your base image Photoshop window, and Edit > Paste, dropping the second image on top. Set the layer’s Blending Mode to Multiply, and reduce the Opacity to about 60%.

Select the Background copy layer (containing your base image), and duplicate it, moving the duplicate layer to the top of the sequence. Bring the Opacity down to about 20%.

Head up to File > Save As and save the document as a Photoshop file.

Step 5

Move over to Adobe InDesign (this might be the best choice of software for editing typography later, if you want to add text to your poster design) and create a new document. Here I’ve set it up to One Sheet size (27 by 40 inches, or 69 cm × 102 cm).

Create a new image frame using the Rectangle Frame Tool (F) that extends across the whole page, and then File > Place, choosing your Photoshop image and clicking Open. Scale it up to allow the base subject’s face to fill the majority of the page, mimicking the style of the Nocturnal Animals poster.

Step 6

Use the Rectangle Tool (M) to create a rectangle, extending across the whole page, and from the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches) create a new swatch (C=63 M=74 Y=48 K=59) and apply it to the Fill of the rectangle.

Then select the rectangle and Right-Click (Windows) or Ctrl-Click (Mac) > Arrange > Send to Back.

Step 7

Select the image frame now sitting in front and go to Object > Effects > Gradient Feather. Set the Type to Radial and adjust the position of the Gradient Stops to bring in some of the dark purple tones around the edges of the image.

Click OK.

2. An Image Grid for Collateral Beauty

The poster for Collateral Beauty is minimal and contemporary, with a beautifully put-together collage of the various cast members. A high-impact image grid is easy to create using Adobe InDesign, here’s how…

Step 1

Open up Adobe InDesign and create a new document. Here I’ve set up the page to One Sheet size (27 by 40 inches, or 69 cm × 102 cm), and included a 5 mm Bleed around all edges of the page.

Use the Rectangle Frame Tool (F) to create an image frame that extends all the way across the page.

While you’re still holding down your mouse, tap the arrow keys a few times up and across to activate InDesign’s gridify effect. Your image frame will split into a grid.

We won’t place images into this grid, but instead use it as a map for creating an image grid on a layer above.

Expand the Layers panel (Window > Layers) and lock the current layer. Click on the Create New Layerbutton at the bottom of the panel and rename the layerFace.

Step 2

To recreate the Collateral Beauty effect you can use any photo you like, but one with a strong silhouette tends to have more impact. This portrait of a woman looking over her shoulder will work really well.

Create a new image frame extending across the whole of the page, and then File > Place your chosen image.

Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste the image frame and move the copy onto the pasteboard next to the page. This will keep an intact copy of the whole image at the correct size if you need to refer back to it.

Step 3

Reduce the size of the image frame to match one of the grid squares below, without rescaling the image sitting inside.

Select your square image frame and Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste in Place. Extend one of the edges of the pasted frame to meet the edge of one of the surrounding square grid sections.

Then pull the opposite edge of the frame so that the image frame is now also square. The position of the image will remain the same inside the frame.

Repeat the process, copying and pasting in place square image frames, before extending them to fit other square sections.

You’ll end up with a grid effect, with equal gaps between the squares, which mimics the style of the Collateral Beauty poster.

Step 4

To give your image a final cinematic effect you can apply a subtle gradient across part of the image. Select the square frames which make up one side of the image (here I’ve selected the squares which make up the neck and shoulders of the woman), and Right-Click (Windows) or Ctrl-Click (Mac) > Group.

Then select the group and head up to Object > Effects > Gradient Feather. Apply the gradient and click OK.

Awesome! There we have it—a cool grid effect worthy of a cinematic poster.

3. Art Deco Typography for La La Land

The nostalgic poster art for awards season favorite La La Land references the golden age of Hollywood cinema with its take on vintage design.

The key to making this retro style look relevant now? It’s all in the typography. Teaming a vintage typeface with a clean sans serif keeps the poster rooted in the modern-day.

This is a great formula to use when trying to emulate vintage designs while keeping your layouts feeling fresh. To recreate the La La Land look, set your headers in the Art Deco typeface Yasashii, which has an elegant, Japanese-influenced style…

…and team with subheadings set in Neutraface, a clean sans serif with very subtle Art Deco inclinations.

4. Neon Glow Typography for Moonlight

Critic’s favorite Moonlight brought some fantastic poster artwork to the table this awards season. With dramatic, moody colors and striking photography it really evokes the Miami setting of the movie. What really adds the finishing touch to this poster design is the neon typography, which helps the title to stand out against a dark color palette. Here’s how you can recreate the effect quickly and easily in InDesign…

Step 1

In your InDesign document, you want to make sure you’re working on a dark background to maximize the impact of the neon effect. You can create a background fill using the Rectangle Tool (M), extended across your page. Here I’ve created a dark blue CMYK swatch, C=91 M=100 Y=40 K=56, and applied that to the rectangle.

Step 2

Create a new text frame using the Type Tool (T) and type in the movie title. To mimic the Moonlight typeface, opt for a clean sans serif like Freight Sans.

Edit > Copy the text frame; we’ll paste a copy in a bit later.

For now, set the Font Color of your text to match the background color.

Step 3

Create a new CMYK swatch. This will be your neon glow color, so pale pinks, blues and greens will work particularly well. Here I’ve created an icy blue, C=28 M=0 Y=0 K=0.

Step 4

Select the text frame and go to Object > Effects > Outer Glow.

Keep the Mode set to Screen, and click on the color swatch to the right of the mode menu to adjust the color to your neon swatch. Bring the Opacity down to around 60%.

Set the Technique to Softer, Size to about 15 mm and Spread to about 30%.

Click OK.

Step 5

Edit > Paste in Place your original text frame, and adjust the Font Color of the pasted text to your neon swatch.

Then head up again to Object > Effects > Outer Glow.

Keep the Mode set to Screen, and click on the color swatch to the right of the mode menu to adjust the color to your neon swatch. Pull the Opacity slider down to around 70%. Set the Technique to Softer, Size to 3 mm, Noise to 2% and Spread to about 20%.

Then go ahead and click OK.

5. Exaggerated Perspective for The Magnificent Seven

To make The Magnificent Seven poster really pop, the designer opted for exaggerated perspective, interweaving the characters of the movie around the movie title. This sort of 3D effect is really simple to achieve using Adobe Illustrator’s Perspective Grid function. Let’s take a look how…

Step 1

Set the text in a Western-inspired font, to give your typography a Wild West flavor. Here I’ve used Dust West. I adjust the baseline of the text to get all the letters perfectly aligned, and adjust the tracking and sizing to create a block of text. You can do this editing in either Adobe InDesign, like I’ve done here, or straight into Illustrator.

If using InDesign, Copy and Paste your text frames into a new Illustrator document once you’ve finished formatting.

Step 2

In Illustrator go to View > Perspective Grid.

Select all of the text and go to Type > Create Outlines.

Then Right-Click (Windows) or Ctrl-Click (Mac)and choose Group.

Step 3

With the group selected, head up to Object > Attach to Active Plane.

Now that you’ve attached the vector to the grid, you can select the group using the Perspective Selection Tool (Shift+V) and drag it around, playing with the perspective.

Once you’re happy with the result, you can fix the position of the text by activating the Selection Tool (V).

You can now adjust the fill of the text (here, I’ve gone for a gold swatch, C=22 M=36 Y=84 K=1 to mimic the style of The Magnificent Seven poster) and incorporate it into your poster design.

6. Nostalgic Style for T2 Trainspotting

The original Trainspotting movie went on to become a cult favorite, and now the beloved Nineties Edinburgh-set film has also spawned a sequel this year. The poster artwork for the original movie is amongst the most iconic posters of all time, and feels firmly rooted in Nineties grunge culture.

Two decades later, and T2 needed to come across as relevant for contemporary audiences, as well as delivering a hefty dose of nostalgia for fans of the original film.

The strength of the T2 posters lies in clever color contrast teamed with classic typography. To recreate the look in your own designs, convert images to high-contrast black and white (in Photoshop, apply a Black and White Adjustment Layer, and tweak the color sliders to exaggerate levels of darkness and light).

Set your typography in classic Helvetica to imitate the minimal style of the T2 posters. The typeface was chosen for the first film as it was similar to the typefaces used on British train timetables, as well as being associated with pharmaceutical packaging, appropriate for the drug references explored in the film.

The final touch? It wouldn’t be a Trainspotting tribute without that iconic orange. The closest match to the swatch used on the T2 posters is C=2 M=78 Y=100 K=0, a punchy red-orange that looks fantastic teamed with black and white photography.

Whether you’re redesigning artwork for your favorite movie or promoting a new film, posters are the perfect place to really stretch your creative muscles. Now you knowhow simple it can be to create interesting design effects, from dreamy double exposure photos to high-impact neon typography. Once you have a great idea for conceptualizing the poster, have confidence that you can realize your ideas using standard design software and create something that looks jaw-droppingly good.