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THE DARK KNIGHT SAGA POSTERS

The Dark Knight Saga Poster Trilogy

A mockup of how all three posters look in public.

Many months after doing my memory thesis movie posters, I felt like creating another poster (or poster set) that represented the main theme of the film in a unique and interesting way. This time, I turned to the minimalist (but easy to understand) design philosophies found in Swiss Design and the œuvres of both Paul Rand and Saul Bass. I had originally thought of doing just “The Dark Knight,” but I ultimately expanded the idea to the whole “Dark Knight Saga,” giving the new designs more connection. I also wanted to challenge myself and the audience by not showing any familiar Batman-related imagery, such as the emblem.

Another inspiration for this project was trying to create a minimalist/Bass-style poster without plagiarizing famous symbols & designs, and basic overall style, from Bass posters, which is bound to happen in Bass-inspired work, as seen above. I wanted the posters to have their original designs and flavor.

My poster for "Batman Begins" (2005).

The major theme in “Batman Beings” (2005) is fear. The film starts off with a lost Bruce Wayne being trained by an aggressive ninja society called the League of Shadows to fight global injustice and, to quote the film, “to turn fear against those who prey on the fearful.” Bruce ultimately leaves the League and returns to Gotham to become Batman to use fear against criminals and corrupt cops.

Meanwhile, there is a villainous plot being concocted by Dr. Jonathan Crane (Scarecrow), with help from the League of Shadows. The group have infiltrated the entire infrastructure of the corrupt Gothm and plan to destroy the city and its citizens by spreading a far-inducing aerial toxin, with no regard towards innocent lives.

Researching odd and interesting visual representations of fear led me to a mosaic of the Greek god of fear, Phobos. The gas-like mane of hair was perfect to use because it looked like the cloud of fear toxin the League of Shadows used to try to destroy Gotham in the climax of the film. I created a drawing based on Phobos’ hair and vectorized it.

The gas cloud shape in the first poster is used twice; first, to represent Batman and the League of Shadows and second, to show their similar and different methods and beliefs. Neither cloud is purely black or white. Batman uses fear and intimidation against vile criminals while the League destroy corrupt cities and civilizations, dating all the way back to Ancient Rome.

My poster for "The Dark Knight" (2008).

The struggle against order and chaos, along with one knowing their limits in fighting evil, are the major themes in the famous sequel, “The Dark Knight” (2008).

Thanks to a vigilante crime-fighter who dresses up as a bat, the people of Gotham now live in a society where criminals are starting to lose power. But things also get more sinister as another villain enters, a self-proclaimed “agent of chaos” known only as the Joker, who commits random crimes and acts of violence and destruction, all to spread anarchy and lawlessness in the city.

In contrast to my first poser, the background is dark blue to show that this is Gotham’s darkest hour (similar to the original theatrical posters, one of which is seen at left) while the city is in red, like all the violence and explosions occurring in it.

The light gray cloud returns to represent Batman. Additionally, there are a series of random shapes spread all around the city design. These symbolize, appropriately enough, this film’s anarchist version of the Joker.

The posters were originally made in the CMYK color mode in InDesign. For some of the shapes, I made them, notably the green squiggle shape, in Illustrator in RGB color mode.

My poster for "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012).

For the final film, “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012), the major theme is pain, mainly how false hope is used to try to numb it only for it to return when the truth is revealed.

Eight years after the previous film ending with the death of “white knight” D.A. Harvey Dent (after turning into the villainous Two-Face thanks to Joker), Gotham has started to get its crime under control thanks to the Dent Act, but it’s actually because Batman took the fall for Two-Face’s crimes rather than let the Joker win.

Bruce Wayne also believes that his late love interest Rachel, killed in the last film, would still wait for the day when Batman was no longer needed, but Alfred hid the truth from Bruce to spare the latter pain.

Meanwhile, class divisions grow in the city. Bane, this film’s villain and a former League of Shadows member, exploit this by taking over the city with pseudo-populist rhetoric and actually plan to destroy Gotham with a nuclear energy-core-turned-bomb.

Unpleasant hues and shades of yellow are used here to represent the artificial happiness and prosperity Gotham undergoes in the movie. The main villain, Bane, is represented by a jagged version of the League of Shadows cloud from the first poster, with a red center. Both represent how pain, both personal and physical, has formed the character to becomes villainous.

Sketches and vector designs for the posters, with a reference for Phobos.

As seen, all three posters feature a graphic representation of Gotham City against a solid background to show the city’s state in each film; filthy and corrupt, gloomy and violent, and basking in artificially-created prosperity.

The credits on the poster are done in Helvetica, referencing the Swiss design influence and to give the movie poster credits a different style than standard poster credits, using a font called Steel Tongs, a font similar to Univers 33. In a deviation from Swiss design, the titles of the movies are done in Perpetual Bold Italic. The high stroke contrast seemed to give a Bodoni-like elegance and the single-storey g featured is something that’s hardly seen in serif typeface italics.

Fun fact: a single 1000-foot reel of 35mm film is 11 m, 6s, 16 f; a single 2000-foot reel of 35mm film is 22 m, 13 s, 8 f.

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