Hitchcock & Casey
The Typographic Movie Poster project required us to portray thematic elements of any Alfred Hitchcock movie through the style of a renowned designer. I selected Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’, because I had not yet seen it. My impression of the plot was that it told the story of a delusional mind’s ability to wreak havoc on a person and those around them. It was a haunting and mature tale, with paranormal and medical anomaly-related elements.
I then began researching the list of graphic designers I was given, and came across Jacqueline Casey. Casey’s work consisted of mainly informational posters or magazine spreads, that featured black backgrounds, minimal geometric foregrounds and white Helvetica text. The overall dark look of her work and suspensive negative space use contribute to a haunting quality. I thought her style would be able to reflect the nature of ‘Vertigo’ and also would work well in a movie poster format.
For my final design solution, I created an eleven-by-seventeen- inch movie poster that features a black background, white Helvetica text, and a pop-of-red geometric design. My geometric design creates an illusionistic representation of the tall buildings that play a large role in Vertigo’s plot; they are the causation of much fear and tragedy for the main characters. The characters’ names run vertically down the suggested side of the building, representing their falling. Other text includes “Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo” written boldly at the bottom, “Coming Spring 1958” written vertically in the top right corner, and a movie review from Rolling Stone.