The use of semiotic theory in movie posters

In my last blog post I wrote about why graphic designers choose to use certain typefaces for different genres of film posters and how this links back to semiotic theory. It inspired me to carry out a creative experiment in an effort to skew the visual perception of some well known movies, and prove how important semiotics are within visual communication.

I chose four movie posters that come under four different genres and swapped around their colour schemes and the main typeface used. I wanted to see if by making these simple adjustments it could alter the look and feel of the posters so they appear to look more like a different genre.

Below are the four original posters I chose, Batman: The Dark Knight (Action), Bridesmaids (Comedy), La La Land (Romance) and Bladerunner (Sci-Fi). I specifically chose these four films as I felt their accompanying posters used distinctive typefaces that are commonly seen within their genre, so hold a strong meaning relating back to connotation theory.

Left - Batman: The Dark Knight original poster (Action). Right - Bridesmaids original poster (Comedy)

Left - La La Land original poster (Romance). Right - Bladerunner 2049 original poster (Sci-fi)

When I first began the experiment I planned to only swap around the typefaces, but as I began to do this I felt it didn’t have a big enough effect on the connotation, so added colour overlays and altered the contrast/saturation too. It was interesting how this instantly had a much bigger impact.

I decided to swap The Dark Knight and Bridesmaids around, then La La Land and Bladerunner. Below are the end results after my editing.

Left - Edited Batman poster. Intended genre: Comedy. Right - Edited Bridesmaids poster. Intended genre: Action.

Left - Edited La La Land poster. Intended genre: Sci-fi. Right - Edited Bladerunner poster. Intended genre: Romance.

I feel the poster that worked the best is probably Bridesmaids, mainly as the content of the poster is quite ambiguous, so it made it easier to skew. Whereas with the others, although I think it did begin to move them away from their original genre, the content made it more difficult to alter the perception. For example, not only is Batman a well known action superhero, but the crumbling, dramatic building behind him feels very much like the scene from an action movie. And similarly the couple dancing in La La Land gives off the impression of a romance, and the neon lights/weapons in the Bladerunner poster makes it look more like a sci-fi film.

To take the experiment a step further I created a short multiple choice survey to share around with friends and fellow students. I asked those taking part to choose from multiple choice options which genre they felt each poster most looked like. In the choices I included the original genre, the one I swapped it with, another random choice and an option to choose other and write a different answer.

SURVEY RESULTS

Poster #1: Batman The Dark Knight

The results from the first poster were fairly evenly split with 44% of people thinking it looked like the intended genre, comedy, which is more successful than I thought. However, 44% felt it still looked like an action, then 6% chose more specifically a super hero film and 6% said horror. As I mentioned before, I believe this is because of the very distinctive imagery used in the original poster design that encapsulates an action film. But the bright pink colour overlay and chunky, bold typeface Gotham Ultra was enough to make some people think differently.

Poster #2: La La Land

The second poster turned out to be one of the most successful. Eventhough the imagery of the original La La Land poster felt very much like a romance film, only 19% answered romance after the experiment. Most people, 69%, said it looked like the intended genre of sci-fi. I think this is because of the very bold and distinctive typeface and it was also quite easy to dramatically change the colour scheme to reflect the genre.

Poster #3: Bridesmaids

As predicted the Bridemaids poster experiment also worked well, with only 21% choosing the original genre of comedy. As I mentioned before I think the reason for this is due to the ambiguous nature of the imagery in the poster, however this also meant that although 43% of people felt it looked like the intended genre of action, 21% thought it looked like a thriller and 14% chose drama. This made the results slightly mixed.

Poster #4: Bladerunner

As I thought, this was the least successful out of the whole experiment. Sadly, only 13% thought it looked like the intended genre of romance and 56% thought it still looked like the original genre, sci-fi. Other people chose the genres art house, drama and action. I think the reason for this is partly due to the strong sci-fi like imagery in the poster, but also because of the typeface used. Eventhough this is the same typeface used in the original La La Land poster, I don’t believe it has a strong enough affinity with the romance genre. Perhaps a lowercase, handwritten or calligraphy style typeface would have worked better to soften the poster and skew perceptions more.


Most people who took part in the survey agreed it was an interesting experiment that worked well. Some feedback was that they felt the colour scheme change made more of an impact than the typography, which relates back to my dilemma at the beginning of the editing stage, when I originally only intended to change the typefaces. I think I underestimated how important colour, saturation and contrast can be when considering semiotic theory.

Other feedback was that some people found the survey tricky as they were very familiar with the films I’d chosen, so felt it was difficult to think about them as a different genre. This was also one of my concerns when I decided to ask others what they thought of the edited posters, but despite that the results show the changes were still quite effective.

Overall I think the experiment worked well and gave me an insight into the effect of typography and colour choice within semiotics. I think it successfully proves how important both are in conveying a meaning within communication design, and demonstrates the importance of the visual choices designers make when trying to convey a message to the viewer.

However, this task also demonstrates that we can’t ignore the importance of imagery and photography in film poster design and graphic design in general. Peirce’s theory of signs as symbols and Barthe’s connotation theory talk about how we rely on the viewer having learnt the connection between the sign and its meaning through cultural experiences. For example, when considering the La La Land poster, in most cultures we would consider two people connecting through dance as a romantic scenario. However, when designing a sci-fi poster like Bladerunner this may prove more difficult, as you would have to rely on the viewer to have seen enough other sci-fi films, documentaries or read books/comics to have built up a connection between the genre and the neon lights, guns and desolate landscape.

Designers must make the right typographic, image and colour choices in their work to convey meaning effectively.

In summary, this proves the complex task designers have on their hands to effectively communicate meaning through their work. They must consider the images, objects and landscapes viewed within the design; the typeface used, whether it’s lowercase or uppercase, light or heavy; and how the colour scheme, contrast and brightness of the design sets the scene and tone. It’s not as simple as just making something look attractive or easy to read and digest, we have to put ourselves into the psyche of others.