THE TASK
For this project I was tasked to chose a classic story from the Gutenberg Project to create a poster for. I chose the 1897 classic, Dracula by Bram Stoker, as I really enjoyed the dark ominous tone of this story and I believed that I could translate this story well into a modern movie poster.
Dracula poster moodboard
Dracula poster sketches
INITIAL PROCESS
I first did some brainstorming to figure out what tone and feel I wanted my movie poster to reflect. I knew that I wanted my poster to reflect the horror genre with a creepy feeling to it. I then did some research and found some posters, fonts, graphics, images, and colours that would serve as the inspiration for my poster. Additionally, I organized my inspirational elements onto a mood board. Next, I sketched out 3 potential ideas for the poster.
First draft of Dracula poster with imagery of castle and bats
First draft of Dracula poster with creepy trees and Dracula's face on the moon
First draft of Dracula poster with imagery of vampire fangs and dripping blood
FIRST DRAFTS
I then began creating the graphic elements for each of the posters that I previously sketched out, using Adobe Illustrator. Next, I brought these graphical elements into Adobe InDesign in order to properly lay them out with the necessary typographical material such as the title, actors, credits and the release date.
FINAL POSTER
After receiving valuable feedback from various peers and mentors, I decided my most effective first draft poster would serve as the basis for my final design, combining some of the elements from my other first draft posters as well.
The final design is a poster that captures the feel and tone of the original story by, Bram Stoker, in a cinematic and modern way. This poster uses unique imagery that is often associated with the fictional character, such as bats castles, and the moon, in order to capture an ominous and exciting theme. Additionally, the primary font used for both the title and and release date, echos the gothic, horror feel of the story.
