Metropolis
Organist Performance of the 1927 Sci-Fi Thriller
by Donald Rankin
Poster Design
For this project with my client, Donald Rankin. He needed a digital and physical print movie poster for his new organist performance, ‘Metropolis.’
The job was to create an eye-catching design of a fan-made poster for the famous film, Metropolis. The movie was made in 1927.
”A beautiful and cultured Utopia exists above a bleak underworld populated by mistreated workers. When the privileged youth Freder discovers the grim scene under the highly stylized futuristic city, he becomes intent on helping the workers.” (Wikipedia)
Donald would perform the soundtrack of the movie on an organ. While the poster would have modern twists and turns, it still needed to be
recognizable and suitable for multiple formats and uses.
The designs were digitally made to give that clean fresh take. However, the city outside itself and the graphics used are edited and modified, as well as photos of organs, church instruments, and architecture. To create that recognizable city outline from the original poster.
Original poster. Take a look at those colors and city line design use.
For the color scheme, it was requested to keep it as close as possible to the original design. We were aware of the original browns and aged chromes. But attempted a black-and-white. It didn’t hit correctly. With more editing and an illustrative approach, we found the creams and grey to be perfect.
