I'm a big fan of movie poster design. 1
Most of them have a great design work. It's intriguing, exciting and often mysterious. 2
I often have this habit of staring at movie posters in the streets. And then boring my girlfriend with 3
the details on what sort of typography they were using, and what did they do with a photo, and what sort of 4
design tricks they used on it. 5
As you learn fundamentals of good design, you will never look at the movie posters the same way again. 6
Here on these 2 posters, I want you to notice the similarity in how the photos are used. 7
Do you notice how their full head is invisible? And it's zoomed in, very closely, to their face. 8
This is called Extreme Crop. In this and following lesson, 9
I'm going to teach you several ways how to crop an image. How cool is design? 10
There are even tricks on how to crop a photo. 11
Let's start with Extreme Crop. 12
Remember this example from the color lesson? 13
The original photo of the lion is actually this. But this layout isn't as impressive, as the previous 14
one. 15
Despite the fact that we see more of the lion. Compared to the full view, her look now has become much 16
more intense and a little unsettling. 17
It adds more emotion and drama to the image. 18
There are two things happening here. 19
First, there is more focus on the most important part of any being – their face and especially their eyes. 20
This makes a shot more intimate. 21
The eyes are sort of talking to us. Like they're trying to give us a message, or demonstrate some sort 22
of emotion. Makes us more curious and interested. And the second, hiding parts of the subject creates mystery. 23
The story that is on the poster, now doesn't end on the edge of 24
that poster. 25
It feels like there is much more to it than what we see. 26
Which means, we want to find out. And we want to solve the puzzle of that mystery. 27
This is how you make interesting design. Extreme cropping isn't just used on humans and animals, 28
it can be used on objects too. 29
This a great example of extreme cropping, I came across on some website. Cropping out parts of the bicycle 30
makes the section more interesting. 31
The key to nailing extreme crop is to not go too far and make the object unrecognizable. 32
The audience has to understand what's the object instantly, without squinting or pausing even for a 33
second. Until the object remains obvious, 34
then you have a freedom to go pretty extreme. 35
For instance, say you are designing a website for a guitar store. Instead of using the full shape of the 36
guitar, 37
you can zoom in and crop to the head of the guitar. 38
We can clearly see it's a guitar. 39
Absolutely undeniable. 40
But this is now more interesting. 41
This way we are teasing an audience a little. We are dangling a little information in front of them, but 42
not revealing the whole picture. 43
We're making them finish the puzzle. 44
Add your content. Sample of color from the guitar, make the body text a bit lighter, so it doesn't compete 45
with the headline. And bam! You have an excellent section. 46
It's interesting and intriguing. 47
Remember the lesson about typography? And how to match the personality and mood of the typeface with 48
the context? 49
Take a look at the headline. 50
It says "classical guitars". Without knowing anything about guitars, 51
the word "classical" already dictates, what choice we should make with the typography. 52
Using a modern, geometric typeface like Futura would be so out of place in here. But a script typeface 53
like Apple Chansery is a great match. 54
Often you'll need to design for a very narrow spaces. 55
For example, a horizontal banner for newsletter sign ups. In a narrow space like these, when we place 56
an image, the drama and power within the image is decreased. Because how small it is. This a great image, 57
with a lot of emotion in it, but it's lost. 58
There is a great solution to this. 59
We can find a frame that tells the story. 60
In this case, it's the faces. And zoom into that frame. This frame still portrays the story of the image. 61
The face of the kid is in focus and the parts of the mother's face is enough, to demonstrate the emotion 62
of the photo. Like love and happy vibes. Add the content. And that's it. 63
Now we get a more effective banner. 64
The emotion is still there. And we don't have to squint to understand what's going on in the image. 65
This trick is quite handy for blog headers and article pages. 66
Find a frame that tells the story on its own. Crop into that and now you have a very interesting header 67
for a blog page. One graphic design professor called this technique, "Peeking through the blinds". 68
Think of it not as a cropped photo, but more like the parts of the scene that you see, as you're looking 69
at it through the blinds.