Movie Posters from Other Countires Publicizing Vertigo

Photographs or Drawings?

Posters are a way for people to promote various topics and audiences are attracted to posters for an assortment of reasons. When I look at these posters my eye is attracted to many things. I am first drawn to the photograph in each of the posters. I think this is because they stand out on the black and orange backgrounds. My eye then starts to move to the text starting downward and going counter-clockwise. I think that yellow text in the first poster and the solid yellow rectangle in the second poster catch my eye because yellow is a bright color and next to black it really stands out.

Designers have specific purposes for using a photograph instead of a drawing or a drawing instead of a photo in their poster layout. Personally, I don’t know which I am more attracted to. When I see a photograph on a poster it seems to stand out more in the sense that it is bold and accurate. When I think of drawings, I think of more creativity and elaboration.

When a designer chooses to use a photograph rather than a drawing, or visa versa, it changes the poster’s visual composition. There are many principles of visual composition all of which are used in a variety of ways. It can greatly impact the over all look when deciding to use either a drawing or a photograph or even both. For these specific posters I feel that using a photograph instead of a drawing was much more effective because it shows greater emotion between the male and female.

In our society we know that when a man holds a woman he is trying to comfort her. In these posters I get a sense of comfort and reassurance through the photos. If the designer were to use a drawing rather than the photos I don’t feel that these messages would be conveyed to the audience because it would just be overlooked. For the majority of the public, they need photographs on posters in order to feel compelled to read and look at them. I think that many individuals feel that they connect more with a photograph rather than a drawing. Overall, I believe that photos are more effective on posters because are able to grasp the audience’s attention.