Jaws Noir

Jaws. You know it, you (hopefully) love it, its one of the biggest most well known films there is, with one of the most iconic posters out there. But in-case you’ve been living under a dock somewhere, here’s the original poster.

Pretty Iconic, if not perfection in poster form. Its got intrigue and suspense, it tells you both a story and give you a glimpse into the film, as well as hiving a snazzy design for its time. 1975 was a long long time ago (almost 50 years back by now!) and while the film has aged a little bit, its poster remains timeless.

But did you know the original script was technically written in 1964? That’s right, Jaws is a book adaptation. Peter Benchley's novel Jaws was featured in a magazine that the director, David Brown, stumbled across while reading through the editorial section. Along side the summary of the book was an editors note that “it might make a good movie”. After reading the book, the production crew agreed it was thrilling, and the rest is history.

So why am I blabbing on about that stuff when I’m here to write about my designs? Well, thats a simple question best answered with another question:

What if Jaws was produced 10 years earlier?

By the turn of the decade, the film industry was historically in a bind. Caught between a web of big backers switching funding to Made for TV films, and a wild social movement that would forever shift the American culture; Movie’s in the 60s are almost a time capsule in their own right. A historically low amount of cash flow mixed with a cocktail of politics and social battles, as well as the Vietnam war. By this time, Film Nior’s were making their exit from popular film. Many classical Hollywood actors were dead or dying, if not sent off to the war, and the general public was yearning for new exciting ideas.

It’s actually a miracle the production team for Jaws didn’t gain traction until 1974, for the film not only wouldn’t have been green-lit in the 60’s, but it also more than likely would have been outlawed or neutered by the draconian MPPC rating board that ran from 1930-1968. They weren’t exactly keen on either violence or revealing swim wear.

Anyways, to kick it off, one of my major inspirations was actually Japanese mountain postcards of all things. A lot of them have a really cool “border” on the bottom have of them where they use the text outline to transition from the photo to the edge. I wanted to make that one of my two focal points. My second focal point was to be a sort of Mount Rushmore interpretation of the actors. I wanted them front and center.

Picking a font was a long process. Not many fonts are both interesting by default and feel like a natural 60s font, while also not trying to hard to achieve both of those things. As you can see, I found my perfect fit, and its called Gobold. It also comes with about 4 different special variants that have unique characters, like that funky A that’s missing it’s crossbar.

So, after finding my font, I slapped the title big and bold onto the canvas, before instantly making it blood red. From there, i needed a weathered background, so i went with the tried and true worn paper look. After that, i added a large stock photo of the sea before gray-scaling it. From there, I made a large outline on the JAWS using the same worn paper tan. This gave it that desired effect where the photo ends with the text. After that it all fell into place, the three stars went at the time with a clever fade into the water. Then we have the faded out cast, date, and producer text at the top.

The only change I made to the core of it was the tagline. In the film its “We’re gonna need a bigger boat”, and to be honest, i didn’t think that exactly fit the overall vibe of the poster. I changed it to “They’re” because most films in the Nior style follow a mystery thriller format, or have a very heavy focus on the Narrator and the viewer knowing who the baddie is well before the cast. Either way, I think it still fits good enough to the film while matching the 1960s theme I have going on. All in all, very proud of this one.