THE POSTER BOYS

In catching up on blog updates, I realized I hadn't yet announced the start of my new design podcast with my colleague Brandon Schaefer, The Poster Boys. We're four episodes into a series of long and casual conversations about important poster artists, designers, and movements in graphic design history.  The hub for The Poster Boys is our Tumblr page, theposterboys.tumblr.com, where we attempt to solve the problem of making a visual topic aurally stimulating by showing you the images and posters we're talking about, all in one tidy and chronological spot. Check it out and follow us.

Posters by Brandon Schaefer 

As Brandon and I both design movie posters, our conversations naturally veer into this area as we discuss the challenges and rewards of working in that particular industry. Brandon and I met designing movie posters online for fun and have remained friends since as we both moved into the world of professional design. You can see his great work at seekandspeak.com.

Our first topic was an obvious choice: Saul Bass, legendary designer of movie posters, title sequences, and short films. Such a towering figure of design that we had to take two full episodes to stretch out the conversation (hear Part One here, and Part Two here). We discuss his work with logos and corporate branding, his film icons and posters, his industrial films, his artistic collaborators, and his philosophy about what makes good design.

Episode Three looked at a different kind of movie poster legend: painter Drew Struzan. Anyone of my generation knows Struzan's work from a variety of 80's and 90's adventure posters that adorned the theater halls of their childhood, including his iconic work on the Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars films (we saved Star Wars for a special "galaxy far far away" episode coming later this year).

In Episode Four, we switched gears to less of a household name, but one that we hope will be known by all budding designers: Bob Gill. Gill outlines a concise, refreshing, and potentially game-changing philosophy of design problem solving in his various books and talks, and we celebrate his rules and vocabulary in this episode. Each episode we also open up "The Flat File" to look at the posters for a particular film that were produced by different designers and artists around the world for various purposes, and here we have a particularly interesting and sobering example of the artist's eternal struggle with the marketing machine.

Which brings us to Episode Five, coming later this month, on the Polish Poster School. It's a mammoth topic, and I'm sure we'll only just scratch the surface of this influential movement in design, where Polish artists and designers of the 40's and 50's worked through the post-war social realist era and gave birth to an entirely new and daring language of film poster design. I'll be sure to post again when this episode is up, and you can click around on my blog here (or use the Categories section on the right) to find a whole slew of Polish poster posts.

To keep up with what we're doing, subscribe here on iTunes, and if you can, leave a rating and/or review to help us reach a wider audience. And keep your browser aimed at theposterboys.tumblr.com where you can listen to episodes and view all relevant and related visual materials for the episodes. We're also on Twitter at @PosterBoysShow and on Facebook as well. Have a listen, stay in touch, and let us know what you think.

KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER

Here's a new poster I designed and illustrated for Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter, being released this year by Amplify.

UPDATE: This is now available as a signed and numbered 24x36", 10 color screenprint produced by Burlesque of North America. Wow! For sale now at Posteritati.

Also: Japanese magazine Gigan featured the poster and a short interview with me about the design, which you can check out here.

MOVIE POSTERS OF THE YEAR

Neil Kellerhouse's UNDER THE SKIN tops my list of movie poster designs of the year, but it's practically a tie with THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL which, along with every prop and printed material in the film itself, was designed by Annie Atkins. Some other favorites can be seen below-- outstanding beacons of hope in a wasteland of 2014 theatrical poster design.

Adrian Curry also has a nice list, as always, at Movie Poster of the Week.

design: Annie Atkins

Design: Akiko Stehrenberger

Design: Brandon Schaefer

Design: Neil Kellerhouse

Design (clockwise from top left): Dustin Stanton, BLT Communications (designer unknown), Erik Buckham, Jay Shaw

And as "alternative" movie posters by Mondo and the like continue to soar leaps and bounds above where theatrical posters are often allowed to go, I have to also give honorable mention to two of my favorites this year, We Buy Your Kids' THE FLY and Martin Ansin's tribute to the 1966 BATMAN.

MÉTAMORPHOSES

I'm happy to share this new theatrical poster I designed and illustrated for the release of Christophe Honoré's new film MÉTAMORPHOSES. Below is another snap of the poster, just sent to me by Christophe, in an alternate wide version for French theatres and subways. Look for the film in France and around the world this year.

THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG

 

Artist copies now available in my shop! 

I'm happy to share this new design for THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG , available as a limited edition screenprint at the Belcourt Theatre starting this Thursday (Thanksgiving evening). 20 copies will be available at the Belcourt. Jacques Demy's iconic musical plays as part of a retrospective of the director's work continuing now at the Belcourt.

MAGICK LANTERN CYCLE PART 2

Here's the second poster I made for The Light & Sound Machine, presented by Third Man Records and the Belcourt Theatre, for Kenneth Anger's Magick Lantern Cycle Part Two. A very very limited number of prints will be for sale at the event, Wednesday night at 7pm at Third Man. A few of last month's may still be available, and both posters pair together in an 18x24" frame. Stay tuned for possible copies available in my shop at a later date.

ENEMY

Here's a one-sheet I designed for ENEMY, Denis Villenueve's new film out now from A24. 

MATEO

Here's a new poster I designed for the new documentary MATEO, a wonderful and captivating documentary about musician Mateo Stoneman. Mateo's songs are inspired by and recorded within the sound of Cuban music, and I drew on some Cuban poster art influences to create this piece. Catch MATEO at South by Southwest this March and at other festivals throughout the year. 

HER

My last Frames piece for The Dissolve is up-- a poster design for Spike Jonze's HER. Seen here in the bottom right along with the other seven designs I created for the Frames column (click to enlarge). Thanks to the fantastic staff and readers of The Dissolve, and keep your eyes there for more collaborations in the near future...

B-SIDES

Lots of designs don't ever see the light of day, and I've been meaning for a while to dump some of them into a blog post now that some time has passed. For one reason or another, these designs never went to print, but they still hold a special place in my mind.

SPRING BREAKERS & 2013 IN POSTERS

Over at my ongoing Frames column at The Dissolve, I've posted a new design for what is (at press time) my favorite film of the year, SPRING BREAKERS. See the full design at The Dissolve, and if you'd like a copy from a very limited run of screenprints you can get one here at my shop. 

In the same column at The Dissolve I've also posted a roundup of my ten favorite poster designs I saw this year. Check it out and leave a comment if you'd like. 

As for other stuff I liked this year? I'll get to that soon; Still a few more movies to see, and a long soundtrack mix to put together. In other news, Nashvillians can catch me at The Stone Fox's holiday market this Saturday from 10am-4pm. Happy holidays!

2013 WORK

It's been a fun year filled with great and interesting design projects that I've felt fortunate to work on. Here's a long look back. 

DR. STRANGELOVE

This new screenprint I designed for Spoke Art and the Castro Theatre is for sale now. Signed and numbered edition of 100. Always intimidating coming up with a Kubrick design... DR. STRANGELOVE is probably my favorite comedy of all time. Pick up a print at the Spoke Art store.

WILD STYLE

I did this new poster for the 30th Anniversary of the classic hip-hop movie WILD STYLE. We made some mini posters for a recent anniversary concert, and I believe the film will be making the rounds theatrically and on home viewing as well. Check it out!

FANTASTIC PLANET

I'm really happy to share this poster I designed for Cinefil Imagica's release of FANTASTIC PLANET on Blu-ray in Japan, as well as the below inlay and booklet designs. The poster will be an exclusive for Japanese customers who purchase the Blu-ray at certain retail stores. Even if you've seen this classic, surreal animated film from René Laloux and Jiri Trnka Studios, you've never seen it like this; Cinefil Imagica has produced a gorgeous restoration more colorful and striking than any I've seen. The region-free Blu-ray is available September 27th. (note for English-speaking customers: it does not contain English subtitles)

OUR NIXON

I was asked by Cinedigm to design the theatrical poster for OUR NIXON, a fascinating new documentary comprised of 8mm footage filmed by Nixon's aides during his presidency. Here's the poster, the design for which references the "Nixon Now" campaign from Nixon's re-election (we are making buttons too!). See the trailer premiere at TIME and look for Our Nixon's CNN premiere on Aug 1.

FILM POSTERS 2

A selection of prints and theatrical posters I've designed over the past two years will be on display at the Belcourt Theatre gallery this month. Pieces will be for sale as framed single copies. Having a little reception this Sunday from 5-6:30pm. If you're in town, stop by, or check out the show through the rest of the month. 

HOUSE PRINTS

The cat's out of the bag: For the Belcourt's encore midnight movie showings of HOUSE, a limited run of screenprints based on my original poster design will be available to Belcourt attendees. This is the first time I've been able to print silkscreen posters of the original design (the original posters were digital prints, followed by the theatrical one-sheets, then screenprints that were made in three alternate colors), and it's also likely to be the last time these will be produced. 

The 18x24" prints, made locally at Kangaroo Press, will come in a signed and numbered edition of 75 and be available beginning at 11pm Friday the 21st at the Belcourt.

On a related note, Film on Paper invited me for an extensive interview that you can read here, covering the House poster and all things poster design.

If you haven't seen HOUSE, don't miss your chance to catch it in 35mm with a great crowd and fun contests and drink specials tomorrow and Saturday night!

A FILM ABOUT LEVON HELM

Here's the theatrical poster I made for AIN'T IN IT FOR MY HEALTH: A FILM ABOUT LEVON HELM, directed by Jacob Hatley and released by Kino. Levon is a hero of mine and it was an honor to be involved in this project, a portrait of Helm during his last years.

An early concept for this project led me to create this screenprinted Levon portrait.

STOKER