"The Shining" Movie Poster by Saul Bass

Title: "The Shining" Movie Poster
Date: 1980
Artist: Saul Bass
Design Movement: International Style

Saul Bass was an incredible part of the history of graphic design. His work became some of the most recognizable and sought after, especially in the film industry. He worked with many of the greatest directors of all time including Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, and Stanley Kubrick. This particular poster was made for Stanley Kubrick and I find it extremely interesting because it follows his usual style of cut out text on a single color background, yet it's for a horror movie. Most people would have made it with yellow/orange text on black. I think this is more successful for not doing that because not only does it grab your attention more this way (and it's less cliche'), but also because of the figure in the oversize letter T which now feels like it is in the dark. That wouldn't work in a yellow block. I think the letter T is interesting too because of how it allows itself to be bigger than normal to allow room for the figure.