Minimalist Art Film Posters

Saul Bass

Saul Bass is an American graphic designer and was mostly known for his minimalistic film
posters and film titles. He was born in New York in 1920. He produced posters between
1954 and 1995, meaning he was 34 years old when he started. He developed his work and
moved to Hollywood in 1954. Two of his most iconic movie posters were “Vertigo” and “The
Shining”. His style was simple but effective. On each movie poster, he made it very simple
by keeping it plain, with one or two key images that displayed a storyline. He created some
of his best- known film posters for films directed by Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock. He
won a bunch of awards including academy award for short subjects and best documentary.
He sadly died in California in 1996, he was aged 75. His work is inspirational to other artists,
that use his work as templates till this day. For instance, the work of Deygas and Kuntzel in
the title sequence for ‘Catch Me If You Can’ was heavily influenced by Saul Bass.

I really like this style and am going to use this particular design in my film poster. I like it
because it stands out from other normal film poster designs.

Rochenko
Alexandr Mikhailovich Rodchenko was born in 1891 and died in 1956 according to
Britannica. Rodchenko was a founding member of Russian constructivism according to
artnet. Rodchenko often used straight lines, right angles and primary colours. Rodchenko is
known for his use of diagonal lines/images, it was a way of showing energy and movement,
creating a visual movement with a still image. An example of a similar type is Gustav
Klutsis’s election poster ‘Let’s fulfil the plans for the great projects.’ This poster summed up
that period as the Russian election was happening in 1930, but also was predicting what was
going to happen later on. It is made up of diagonal hands set at a 45-degree angle over a red
background according to a resource sheet. Above I have presented some of Rodchenko’s
work.

I like this style and have incorporated it into my own poster. I like how smart it appears and
how much it shows when used.

Piet Mondrian

Piet Cornelis Mondrian was a Dutch painter and theoretician that was born in 1872
according to Google. He painted abstract art. Mondrian is best known for his pattern of
colour blocks. He never used a ruler to draw straight lines and used primary colours- red,
yellow and blue. He painted with shapes such as squares and rectangles. Mondrian uses
significant amounts of colour to make patterns. He has a particular style and that’s why he is
well known and talented.