Movie Posters and Their Typography

Movie Posters and Their Typography

Horror Movies

Movie posters are a crucial part of sales. Not only do they help persuade people into going to the theater, they also help movies stand out from one another. Without typography, a movie poster is just an image. Without a title there would be no movie. Typography is a wonderful tool; it helps further express the emotion, tone, feeling, and style in your image.

 Whether your movie is horror, drama, action, comedy, or a mix between these, each poster has the potential to have its own unique look and feel…or so I thought. Because movie sales are on the line, designers tend to do what’s trusted and proven rather than what would do the particular movie justice. Don’t get me wrong, there are many amazing examples of original typography in movie posters out there currently, but it’s disappointing to find out how many generic ones coexist among them. To prove my point, I’ve raked through the dark depths of Netflix to show how generic and uninspired movie poster typography really can be.

When it comes to horror, the poster can be enough on its own to entice someone to spend an hour and half with the movie. Among the thousands of typographic possibilities, the bold red sans serif title seems to be an industry favorite. Yes, red does attract people’s attention and insinuate horror, but Helvetica is everything but scary. 

Action Movies

Action movies are fun, fast, and full of adventure. To communicate this, it seems that the go-to is skewing the type to make thing look in motion. Maybe it wouldn’t seem so predictable if every poster that did this didn’t add a flame overlay behind it and make the font look like it came flying in from off the page. 

Romantic Movies

And then there are the romantic comedies. With one look at the poster, you know what you’re in for: a gentle ride with a few laughs and tears, complete with a storybook ending. A lot of these have really nice font choices and lock-ups, but when they’re sandwiched between colorful mosaics of the actors’ faces on a white background, nothing really stands out.

Indie Movies

Indie movies are no different either. It seems that the only way to make sure the public knows your movie will be quirky but soft spoken is to hand-letter the title. I’m a big fan of narrow hand-drawn text, but the more it’s used, the less I appreciate its whimsicality.

Looking ahead, I’d love to see the typography handled more carefully. Instead of immediately assuming that the type for a horror movie needs to be red and bloody, I’d like to see designers thinking about what style and lockup is appropriate for that individual movie based on the plot, the cinematography, and anything else that makes that movie different from other movies. Although the purpose of movie posters is to attract the broadest audience, I hope the industry can get back in touch with their design sense.