Top 10 Film Poster Design Trends of 2022

by | Mar 6, 2023 | Design Trends

Every film has that one main poster that is released as the initial promotional material. Later on, producers release singular characters in the spotlight, these are called “Character Posters.” The film poster design trends can go on to become iconic and even case studies in graphic design, illustration and photography classes. A film like Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo was famous for its design and silkscreen printing technique. Rob Marshall’s Memoirs Of A Geisha is iconic for its monochromatic photography with the pop of colour from the red lips. These designs held meaning to the plot of the films in a subtle yet evocative way. 

Since film posters are the first thing that the audience sees, movie poster artwork and its impact on cinema are massive. Movie poster artwork and its role in film marketing are the same as the relationship between an advertisement and a product.

Fast forward to 2022 and the movie posters we see today. Movie poster artwork styles and trends, techniques and materials may have changed but its impact still remains. Let us take a look at the photographic elements, illustration, graphic design, layout and art direction of the movie posters of the top 10 blockbuster movies of 2022.

Film Poster Design Trends

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE POSTER DESIGN

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Studio: A24

Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Kurtis, Ke Huy Quan

Director: Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert

A maximalist storyline calls for a maximalist layout. The poster of this film is circular with outer ring layers. Each level or layer is full of colourful illustrations and photos of characters from the films. A truly refreshing poster in a Maximalist style.

This poster goes to show that illustrators, graphic designers and directors of photography can work together to create a masterpiece full of meaning to the film and its concentric storyline. And above all, the poster doubles as a prop for a drinking game I would like to call “spot the googly eyes.”

TOP GUN MAVERICK MOVIE POSTER DESIGN

Top Gun: Maverick

Studio: Paramount Pictures

Starring: Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly

Director: Joseph Kosinski

The layout of the Top Gun: Maverick poster cleverly resembles an aviator wing patch that is sewn on a pilot’s jacket. The layout looks like a remastered version of the old Top Gun logo from the 80s. The poster has a good colour scheme that is evocative of the sky with its blue and yellow hues. The lead actor is perfectly centered to look like the body of an eagle (since it is an American film) and the rest of the cast becomes his wings. All elements are translated well into a recognisable geometric shape of the classic Top Gun logo. This is a good example of when a clever design layout can make the rest of the graphics look like a neat narrative.

AVATAR 2 THE WAY OF THE WATER Design Trends: Poster Art Of The Top 10 Films Of 2022

Avatar 2 – The Way of the Water

Studio: 20th Century Studios

Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver

Director: James Cameron

Since Ryan Gosling has already joked about Avatar and Avatar 2 using the papyrus font for its main title, I will not go further into it. The layout design of this poster is quite ordinary with the main characters’ heads in the sky in a typical vignette fade-out. Yellows and blues are merged well but the subject and composition don’t particularly stand out as much as they could have for a fantasy film of Avatar’s calibre.

MARVEL BLACK PANTHER 2 WAKANDA FOREVER MOVIE POSTER DESIGN

Black Panther 2 Wakanda Forever

Studio: Marvel Studios – Disney

Starring: Letitia Wright, Danai Gurira, Angela Bassett

Director: Ryan Coogler

Marvel Studios usually put all of the main cast together in a cluster, they blur out the edges of their floating heads so it can look like the characters blend together. They give the poster a colour scheme, generally, something in the colours of the superhero’s costume, slap on the title and voila! The Black Panther Wakanda Forever poster is no different. However, this time the layout is cohesive and indicative of the characters’ backgrounds in the story. The Namor and Talokan people are depicted as a water reflection of Shuri and the Wakandans. Overall, this is a good poster that aims to capture the plot details of the film.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Studio: Marvel Studios – Disney

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen

Director: Sam Raimi

Shattered glass pieces show the destruction of the multiverse with versions of Dr. Strange reflected in some of them along with other main characters. Not bad for a Marvel poster. However, after so many films of Marvel’s 4 phases, the studio should aim to go beyond “not bad.” The Doctor Strange comics and fan art have some brilliant concepts using halftone, inky comic illustrations and colours. As far as posters of multiverse movies go, Everything Everywhere All At Once has a fantastic poster in comparison. Paying tribute to these pulp artists and illustrators in the posters might be a better way to honour them and please the fans. Here’s hoping Marvel makes better work for film poster design trends.

MINIONS 2 THE RISE OF GRU MOVIE POSTER DESIGN

Minions: The Rise of Gru

Studio: Illumination

Starring: Steve Carell, Julie Andrews

Director: Kyle Balda, Brad Ableson, Jonathan del Val

Tie-Dye! What’s not to like? Even though Minions: The Rise of Gru poster has the same layout as Doctor Strange And The Multiverse Of Madness, the former may have done it better. The film poster design trend is full of fun colours as a kiddie film poster should be. The concept cleverly uses tie-dye and Op Art as a nod to the 70s since that is the time frame in the plot. Also, Gru is at the top of the minion pyramid to show his leadership of them. Altogether cheerful, clever and succinct concept design. 

JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION Design Trends: Poster Art Of The Top 10 Films Of 2022

Jurassic World: Dominion

Studio: Amblin Entertainment

Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeff Goldblum

Director: Colin Trevorrow

The Jurassic World: Dominion poster has three layers that hint at three phases of the story that come together. The original team of the original Jurassic film and the new team merge for a common cause in the middle triangle – The dinosaur. The T-rex in the middle is the icon from the original film’s logo with the rising sun in its eye. This might emphasise the new dawn of a world with dinosaurs.

DCEU THE BATMAN FILM POSTER DESIGN

The Batman

Studio: DC Films

Starring: Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Colin Farrell

Director: Matt Reeves

A Riddler target on Bruce Wayne. Sure the question mark is the Riddler’s icon but the poster does a good job of using it to depict Bruce Wayne’s questionable identity. The layout, in a way, also looks like a swooping bat. The poster manages to highlight everything it needs to for the sake of the film’s narrative.

MARVEL THOR LOVE AND THUNDER MOVIE POSTER DESIGN

Thor: Love and Thunder

Studio: Marvel Studios – Disney

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale

Director: Taika Waititi

While the cliff-shape layout isn’t much to write about, the strong holographic colours, chromatic aberration and loud colour scheme are quirky and attractive. This suits the vibe of the recent Thor films. For collectors of 80s art, this poster can be a good addition.

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2 MOVIE POSTER DESIGN

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 

Studio: Paramount Pictures

Starring: Jim Carrey, James Marsden, Ben Schwartz

Director: Jeff Fowler

The iconic gold ring from the Sonic games, a neat layout, the opposing colours of the hero and villain, and a bit of lightning and neon light effects across the characters in the poster. Formulaic but in this case, if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. This is one of the clever film poster design trends. A fun poster of a fun children’s film based on a fun video game that doesn’t look like it is taking itself too seriously.

Related Posts:

Subscribe to our quarterly newsletter and follow @know_thy_art on Meta socials.

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This