The Buick Special
Event Poster Design
I was responsible for designing a poster for the premiere of the student film "The Buick Special," produced by South Georgia Studios. The poster had to serve as both a movie poster and an event promotion. The project had a tight deadline of two days, but I was able to successfully complete it through efficient time management, utilizing my skills and maintaining a professional attitude.
Key Takeaways
• Quick to respond and communicative
• Able to complete projects within a tight turnaround time
• Capable of working in a variety of styles
• Willing to restart from the beginning to ensure client satisfaction
The start
My client for this project had gotten in touch and asked if I could make them a movie poster in two days. Having worked on similar projects with tight deadlines I took the job and got started immediately. The poster would act as both a movie poster for a short film and the premiere event flyer. I was able to watch the film ahead of time which gave me direction for the project’s tone and story. I was sent some stills and color swatches, but was limited on design references and style preference. This lead me to doing some preliminary research and building my own direction for the poster.
I initially created a minimalist poster for the premiere of "The Buick Special" which was inspired by 1950s design style. The film is a blend of modern and vintage elements, so I wanted to reflect that in the design. I used jazz album covers, magazine ads and movie posters from the era as inspiration. I made sure to complete the poster quickly, within the next day, to allow for adjustments, but it was not what the client wanted. After discussing with the client, it was determined that the poster should have a more traditional and cinematic look. I then researched contemporary movie posters and redesigned the poster from scratch.
I sent several test versions of the poster to the client for review in order to ensure that the new direction I was taking aligned with their vision. This was done quickly in order to alleviate any concerns the client had about meeting the tight deadline. It was crucial to incorporate the car's emblem in the title, so I chose to create a chrome texture using Photoshop into all of the text in the title to create a cohesive design and a cinematic look.
Test Iterations
The End
The final poster featured an image from the movie, depicting the two main characters in a car, highlighting the significance of their relationship and guiding the viewer's eye to the body of text. The door of the car was used as an open space for the title and event information. We made the decision to remove the chrome effect from the body text for improved readability. The client was extremely impressed with the final result, initially having doubts since the first design did not meet their expectations. I am proud of my professional approach, experience, and dedication to guaranteeing full satisfaction for my clients and this project.