Psycho
Cult Redo
Year
2020
Client
DDI
Brief
Create a Movie Poster
for Superfans
Brief
For this brief, we were asked to create our own movie posters for a movie of our choice (from a pre-selected list, of course). As a horror movie fan, I immediately knew I would be designing a new look for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 classic film, “Psycho.”
We had to create both a reimagined movie poster for a specific target audience and a “cult” movie poster more geared towards superfans. For each movie poster, we had to first create a handmade version which we later had to re-create digitally. This page displays my “cult” poster and the process behind its creation.
Process
Catering to the cult following was my first priority, so I felt that the design had to honor the superfan’s attention to detail. I chose to depict the classic car-sinking-in-the-bog scene, not only because it would be instantly recognizable to any fan of the film, but also because the detail of the license plate makes for an excellent piece of “Psycho” trivia.
In an effort to imitate a retro handmade style for this poster, I mostly used gouache and acrylic paint to create the bulk of the imagery, and yellow paper cutouts for the lettering.
Since the movie is black and white, I was able to play around with color without feeling like I’d necessarily be inviting trouble from the die-hard fan’s scrutinizing gaze. I decided to color the car with a blue and white paint job as a nod to the easter egg 1957 Ford Fairlane that re-emerges (with the same license plate!) in the 1998 “Halloween” film starring Janet Leigh and her daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis.
Typography
As in the reimagined poster, I decided to lean on yellow for the lettering since color psychology indicates that it can evoke feelings of danger, fear and anxiety.
For the title type, I concentrated on the paper cutout lettering style of Saul Bass, who created the opening credits for “Psycho” and many other popular movies of the time. Since we are dealing with superfans, it felt right to draw inspiration from the original creatives.
Digitizing
The very first thing I did was scan in the old poster and isolate the car painting, which I touched up using digital paintbrushes in Photoshop. Next, I created my own textures and brushes in Photoshop by scanning in watercolor and lino ink marks that I made with brushes and sponges to create grassy, bog-like textures. The eerie yellow to black foggy gradient was achieved using the blend tool.
Check out the two finished posters below to compare the handmade and digital final pieces.
Handmade Original
Digital Recreation