Minimalist Movie Posters

This project asked students to distill the essence of a film into a single image and a single word or two words — the movie title. The challenge: create a visually compelling movie poster that captures the film’s emotional tone, narrative arc, or pivotal moment, using only the film’s title and one dominant visual element. No taglines, no cast lists; just image and word, in dialogue.

Students selected a movie of their choice and conducted a close reading of its themes, characters, and visual language. They were asked to consider:

What does it mean to place a single image on a page?
How does the presence of a word change the meaning of an image?
How does an image reshape our perception of that word?

These prompts guided students toward a design process rooted in symbolism, restraint, and narrative suggestion. Their solutions emphasized clarity, emotion, and the strength of reduction.

Final Art

In addition to conceptual rigor, students were required to meet production specifications: Posters were designed for large-format printing at 24 x 36 inches (vertical). All imagery had to meet professional resolution standards—vector graphics were encouraged for scalability, while raster-based artwork (created or composited in Photoshop) had to be high resolution and print-ready. Low-quality or pixelated images were not accepted. All projects needed to remain fully editable throughout the design process to allow for feedback, critique, and revision.