Her is a romantic drama film directed by Spike Jonze that has been deemed to be a heartbreaking but impactful story about love. The film is about Theodore, a man looking for his partner, and through a bittersweet journey, he learns about what it is to be human and what it is to make connections.
The film is as much about technology as it is the human experience. The poster for the film captured this quite well, but there begs the question as to whether or not a photograph of Theodore captured the intense emotions that the film did.
The Value of Illustration
Before analyzing and re-creating the Her poster, it is first important to examine the power of illustration in movie poster design. The argument for illustration to be used over photography was specifically called out by Dawn Baillie (Co-Founder and Creative Director of BLT Communications and designer of The Silence of the Lambs poster) in an interview with Clio. In this instance, Baillie is asked about the Raging Bull poster, saying:
This Kunio Hagio piece shows why illustration can be better than a photo. This is an astoundingly evocative painting. It conveys an emotion that is raw and exciting. This poster and Eyes of Laura Mars are what inspired my Silence of the Lambs poster. You get the quality of the film from this skillfully executed design.
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Though the poster for Raging Bull evokes a very different emotion than the one for Her might, the idea is still the same–there is value in illustration because it can capture different feelings and moods than a photograph might.
About Her
Her tells the story of a man as he navigates life and love in a hyper-technological world.
Theodore (Phoenix) is a reserved, lonely man who works at a company that writes and sends letters between loved ones. These letters, penned by the company’s employees and handwritten by computers, are the ultimate form of false humanity. In this not-too-distant future, people are also assisted in their day-to-day activities by OS systems, which include a camera and earpiece so that a virutal assistant can follow you throughout your day. The film follows Theodore as he recovers from a particularly hard break up, after which he falls in love with his personal assistant, Samantha.
Though Samantha appears to be the perfect partner, Theodore soon learns about what really differentiates man and machine, and must learn how to cope with his own humanity in a world that relies so heavily on technology and the connections that it provides.
Her was selected for this particular study because of its themes. Visually, it also lent itself well to an illustrated poster because of its artistic feel and visuals.
Poster Analysis
The poster for “Her” features a high definition photo of the protagonist, played by Joaquin Phoenix, which is fitting for the film.
The film is as much about humanity as it is technology, and Theodore’s portrait conveys the specific feeling of longing and happiness that the film captures. However, just as the citizens of Theodore’s society have come to rely on technology to give them a sense of humanity and belonging in their own world, this poster effectively does the same thing. So what if the poster had been hand drawn instead? What–conceptually and literally–could the viewer gain from that?
It could be argued that capturing Theodore’s character with a photograph is the ultimate reflection of the film’s themes, but in reality, the film does ultimately call attention to the need for real human connections. Thus, an illustrated poster would not only capture the emotions of the character and the film, but could effectively capture the emotions of the artist, too. In a sense, it would engage its audience in a different way, with the notion that someone is behind the design and the art.
Title/Type Design
The illustrated portrait of Theodore offers something that the photograph does not. First and foremost, artistic liberties are taken in the way in which he is painted, giving it a more humanistic feel. Colors were not picked from the photo but rather by the artist. In a sense, the illustration reflects a version of Theodore that someone else perceives, rather than the way he actually looks. The insinuation that someone had to spend time with this photo, and with Theodore’s character, in order to complete the portrait also adds to the conceptual value of the illustration
It is clear that the illustrated poster provides something different than the photographic one does not. However, after piecing together this new illustration and the original title design, the poster felt that it was still missing something, conceptually.
The type design was then revisited to expand upon the importance of the human touch in design.
In the original poster, the title of the film is bold and distracting due to its bright contrast and placement on Theodore’s portrait. The emotion and humanity of the character is competing with the typography, and those familiar with the movie may wonder what the purpose was for this title treatment. Though it could be argued that this sans-serif, all lower-case type could represent the idea of technology, and its blending together symbolizes the morphing of man and machine, it does not feel quite intentional enough to warrant keeping on the redesigned poster.
The re-designed title treatment is elegant and conceptually significant to the film.
