This project involved the design and creation of an illustration-based movie poster. The goal of the project was to create a piece that would be a more bespoke, artistic take on a movie poster rather than traditional theatrical posters. My poster, for Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver," features an illustration of Iris and a custom piece of typography. In her glasses you can see a reflection of the movie's main character, Travis, and her eyes are subtly looking over him.
ideation sketches
The main goal of this project was to create a poster that felt modern and fresh, while still capturing the essence of the film and the era from which it came. The film's original poster - and alternate posters/fan art - all feature Travis, which seems like an obvious choice. My ideation sketches were all based on 'non-traditional' imagery - meaning that I brainstormed different ways to represent this story, and examined symbolism and key moments in the film to base my idea on.
One of the initial ideas was to reimagine the character poster. In the first two sketches, I wanted to focus on Irish and her iconic clothing, because it gives the audience an idea of who she is, and the period in which the film is set.
In the film, you almost see Travis become one with this dark city through his journey, inspiring the sketches on the top. In the next two sketches, we see Travis literally become one with his building, viewing various scenes through silhouetted figures. Just like Travis, this challenges the viewer to make assumptions about what is going on through the windows–just as he did through the brief interactions that he had in his taxi cab.
Another way to consider characters and represent both their personalities and intentions is through objects and settings. These sketches explored the idea of representing Travis and Iris only by their clothes, which are now iconic to the film.
The last consideration made when thinking of concepts for this poster was the setting in which we find Travis most often–his apartment.
This sketch (left) was selected because I found that no posters for the film featured Iris, who plays a profound role in the story. I hoped to showcase the fashion and feel of the 1970s in using her image, but more importantly, I hoped to capture her child-like innocence. This visual is juxtaposed with the violence and unfortunate themes of the film through Travis's reflection in the glasses. Unlike the film itself, this reference to the film's themes is subtle.
POSTER COMPONENTS
The final illustration for the Taxi Driver poster is stylized and painterly, making it reminiscent of 1970s illustration and poster design–without being a direct copy. Iris’s softer face and features are juxtaposed by bright vibrating colors, similar to the ways in which she differed from the harsh landscape of 1970s NYC.
The title treatment for the poster is simple and bold, which allows for the image to be the center of attention. The stenciled style of the original poster is replaced with a bolder sans-serif. The checkerboard pattern flows rather seamlessly into the title, and the yellow doesn’t quite match the yellow of a taxi cab, to avoid it from being too bright or overpowering when placed against the vibrant imagery.
final poster
