16/02/2026- 03/03/2026 (Week 2-Week 5)
Lizzie Tanaka (0362065)
Design Principles | BDCM | Taylor's University
Task 2: Visual Analysis and Ideation
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Task Recap
For this task, we need to conduct a visual analysis on our selected design work. Then, based on our knowledge of the design principles, we have to ideate three sketches of posters that are inspired by the design work we chose.
2. Visual Analysis
Fig 1.1
Credit
Title: Anatomy of a Murder
Designer: Saul Bass
Year: 1959
Medium: Silkscreen (First printed in 1985)
Size: 25x35 inch
Source: Film Art Gallery
i. Observation
This is a film poster by Saul Bass for the 1959 crime legal drama, Anatomy of a Murder. The poster features a big bold red rectangle that fills up nearly the entire space, serving as the background against the title treatment. The title consists of a person lying down, made up of rough imperfect shapes which has the title on it. Below the red rectangle is the movie credits, written in sans serif thin typeface, filling up the space. A tiny version of the person from the title design is also at the very end of the line.
(98 words)
ii. Analysis
The design is highly contrasting. With the use of a big red rectangle in the middle, it leads one’s eye immediately to the center of the poster, where the title lies. The title is black to be emphasized. The human illustration uses the Gestalt theory of Law of Proximity, where each element isn’t connected, but the proximity lets the brain visualize a human. The poster features hierarchy through the use of color and negative space, leading one’s eye to the title treatment first. The title text is also designed with hierarchy, the director’s name being on top and outside of the person, followed by each word positioned strategically so that the eye flows from top to bottom to right. Finally, viewers will be led to the tiny human on the bottom right, contrasting the cream and thin typeface, driving viewers to see the last part of the poster, the movie credits.
The poster has balance and unity, despite not being symmetrical. One part of the poster is not too heavy than the other.
(173 words)
iii. Interpretation
The poster is designed for a crime legal drama film, inspired by an actual murder case that occurred in Michigan, 1952. I find that the poster design has elements of several design movements during that time, namely the Bauhaus and Russian Constructivism. Both features minimalism and geometry shapes, which can be clearly seen in this poster. The Bauhaus concept, ‘less is more,’ is also applied by Saul Bass in this film poster. Inspired by the Russian Constructivism movement, this poster also features dynamic, minimalist geometry forms, accompanied by bold sans-serif typography as well as the use of limited but symbolic color palettes such as black, red, and white.
Reference
McCarthy, M. (2024, November 12). Saul Bass Didn’t Just Design Movie Posters: Exploring His Iconic Logos and Timeless Influence. Film Art Gallery. Retrieved from
(108 words)
Total: 378 words
3. Sketches
Since my poster is a movie poster, my main idea is to redesign a modern film poster inspired by the style of my selected poster.
The movie I chose is Pride and Prejudice. My main idea is to explore around symbolism that represent the movie theme such as social status differences, love and romance.
a. Idea Sketch 1
- 1A: This sketch is the main idea. I chose a seesaw as a symbolism to the imbalance of social class between the two main characters and how it is a recurring conflict theme in the movie. I ideated for the text to be diagonal, following the imbalanced seesaw.
- 1B: This second one is a close up of half of the seesaw with the text seemingly sliding down, incorporating a more playful title treatment.
- 1C: This sketch incorporates a big irregular shape that symbolizes paper, as to represent the way Pride and Prejudice began from a book. It includes the original idea from 1A.
Fig 2.1 Sketch 1: Seesaw
b. Idea Sketch 2
For this idea, I chose a cut-out rough shape heart to represent the theme of love and romance of the movie. The rough, irregular shape is to represent the imperfect, difficult journey of reaching the true form of love between the two characters.
- 2A: This sketch uses the heart shape divided into two while the title will be placed in the middle. The idea is to represent a storytelling of how pride and prejudice gets in the way of love, such as what happened in the movie.
- 2B: For this sketch, I ideated a different layout, by making the hearts diagonally apart, in hopes of giving the poster a more dynamic depth and not as flat.
- 2C: As for the last exploration of this idea, I chose to color block a shape for the background and fill it up with the cut-out heart shape. This will be completed with contrasting colors. Text can either be placed above the heart, or inside the heart. The storytelling of this came from the idea that pride, prejudice, social classes all contribute to the main character's journey in love.
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Fig 2.2 Sketch 2: Cut-out heart
c. Idea Sketch 3
For my third idea, I decided to combine these two symbolizations into one.
- 3A: For the first sketch, I placed the cut-out heart on top of a balanced seesaw with the text inside the seesaw. The idea is to represent that love eliminates the differences in social classes, eliminates pride and prejudice, essentially.
- 3B: For the second exploration, I was inspired by another layout which is to do a half closeup of an imbalanced seesaw.
- 3C: For the last exploration, I cut the heart shape into two, trying to balance the seesaw to symbolize how two individuals try to overcome the challenges of differences.
Fig 2.3 Sketch 3: Combination of seesaw and heart
I showed all my sketches to Mr. Fauzi and he suggested I go with sketch 3C but to make the composition more balanced as it looks bottom-heavy now and I could do something with the space on the top.
FEEDBACKS
Week 6
Mr. Fauzi said the sketches and exploration are good and he said to proceed with sketch 3C
REFLECTIONS:
Truthfully, writing up the analysis taught me to be more aware of an artwork, what goes behind the finished product and the impact of each element used in it. It shows that for me, a good design ensures all its elements are there for a purpose for the audience.
Sketching my ideas, despite doing it messily, taught me how to be creative even in present limitations. Said limitation is the poster that we are to take inspiration from. Personally, I challenged myself to sketch something that's meaningful, full of purpose on each element of design, despite the end result being something quite straightforward and direct as that was what my chosen poster inspire in me.
Overall, I'd say I learned even more new things about design principles and how to actually analyze a design or an artwork and how it helps me in crafting my design later on.
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