Star Wars: The Force Awakens Poster and Title Graphics

It's Star Wars mania again! And when I say again I mean for the third or maybe fourth time. From the rerelease in 1997 to the prequels Star Wars has always brought in a circus. You can’t get away from it because it is plastered everywhere you go, and that time has come again. As of 10/19/2015 the third trailer for the Force Awakens broke the internet. Many questions are trying to be answered. I myself I’m trying to avoid any spoilers or even behind the scenes footage. I want to try to bring back the summer of 77 as much as possible. This Star Wars for the first time in decades has a different atmosphere being released during Christmas instead of summer. Furthermore the main tropic I am presenting is new poster for The Force Awakens. We got the poster as of 10/18/2015 and the trailer as of 10 19/2015 the very year that was dreamed about in Back to The Future Part II, which as of 10/21/2015 has become a movie about the past, however that's for another discussion. Few might wonder why I am talking more about the poster than the much anticipated trailer. A Few reasons I have in mind. The Star Wars posters have always had lot of accent to them. The world of Star Wars is so big you can't fit it on one poster. The poster that's the first official poster for the new Episode VII isn't that impressive, and doses not really speak with more accent. It looks like the poster for the last Star Wars to hit theaters Star Wars: The Clone Wars with washed out with live actors, instead of the cartoon CGI. Why Luke isn’t on the poster I myself and many have asked. What puzzles me is how simple the title art is, which leads to my main topic of discussion. The title art graphics are just in a design that is parallel to what we know, and just overall lackadaisical. It makes me question how the title is being marketed, and how both Disney and Abrams are foreseeing this picture. I'm going to get really silly here for this is a topic of much question for me. It's going to take me back all that way to the first Star Wars poster, and how the title art was presented and marketed.
I thought I’d start off this rant with the title card we all know and love.

 

In the first installment, but not the first Episode we see a title art on the first poster that was different from what was presented in the film’s opening title scroll.

This title card alone is a multimedia franchise not just a film from 1977. This title card alone is a business, and an empire. In 1977 this movie was simply titled Star Wars and nothing else. However this title card wasn't used on the poster as said before.

This is the most iconic movie poster almost of all time, everything about it screams awesome louder than the lego movie. That same thinner title art was used on other posters for the 77 film, and I think for

For the second instalment but once again not second episode, not only is this poster more romantic but features a very different title card. It’s very loud and bold, and comes right at you with its title; and the word empire sticks out most of all. This style of title art was however, never used for any further Star Wars posters. I once saw it used for Attack of Clones on the back of a trading card I got with Wizard magazine a long time ago but not so far away. And not to mention for what is shown  here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the poster for the third installment but not third episode, the title art is stretched more across the bottom half of the poster and is placed in two border lines. This style would later become the standard for the prequels. Bringing all three trilogy posters full circle here, I come to conclude that there wasn't a very uniform title art in mind for the trilogy posters. All were meant to look different and not too in sync with each other.

 

For the 1997 rereleases the posters were much glossy in light trying to reflect a sort of magic. The tittle art for each poster looked more in sync this time around. The titled art for the first poster was now more reminiscence to its opening scroll. A sub title was never added for the first Star Wars instalment because A, Lucas thought the film would flop, and B, he thought it would confuse people if this new film in 1977 had a sub tittle. The Subtitle A New Hope was added to its 1981 rerelease. To confuse fans and spawn a myth about the prequels. Episodes IV, V, VI were added to the title scrolls. So the sub title A New Hope was placed under the famous title card, and the title art for Empire and Jedi was slightly changed and more uniform looking. However with these 1997 posters I don't think these the next two had Star Wars stretched across the top. I guess it was pretty self-explanatory at this point. Another collectors VHS set would be released and look more in sync with the prequel VHS tapes.

So the first highly anticipated and disappointing prequel Phantom Menace like else after had two subtitles. Unlike the original trilogy these films were marked with their Episode numbers I, II, III to I think both lets those know these are prequels and not sequels since they weren't common in 1999-2005. I think this system was also reminiscence to the Flash Gordon serials that inspired Star Wars and  just any serials in general. That being said all three prequels had both the word Episode and their roman numeral in the title followed by the films sub title. The title art had a similar bordering style of Return of The Jedi, and all three posters looked in sync. Uniformed, and well lined up together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the prequels however were released on both VHS and DVD the border displaying Episode One, and such was replaced with just a bigger Star Wars title card with the roman numeral numbers in the back of the title card. This was used for first official DVD release of the original trilogy as well.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Five years later Star Wars The Clone Wars which was an CGI cartoon feature to launch its televised series hit theaters. It's title art used a similar border and bold lettering similar to The Empire Strikes back title art. The design however, is more horizontal unlike the slanted look for Empire Strikes Back.

Now years later as Star Wars The Force Awakens has been thrust into existence we get a title art that looks like it was designed on a regular Mac in maybe ten minutes or less. It appears as if no thought went into the design of the title, and they just slapped it on to the trailer saying here you go. And unlike the prequels it’s not being advertised as Episode VII. The title is now just simply going back to its roots without the word episode or the number in the title. Plain and simple it looks above anything which is unlike the anticipation that is growing for this movie. It now in no way matches up with any of the standards of the modern and pervious Star Wars posters. Put simply it just looks out of place. It would have been fun as a throwback gimmick if they came out with versions of this poster that resemble that of the old school. I'm sure fans will create interesting fan base posters for this film at some point. Once The Force Awakens comes out on DVD. I'm sure it will sync up with all the recent Star Wars DVDs and include its roman numeral. Needless to say that's a long way off.

 

 

 

 

 

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