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.

NEIL KELLERHOUSE

I was introduced to the work of designer Neil Kellerhouse through his covers for the Criterion Collection, realizing that so many of my favorite Criterion covers that I couldn't stop staring at were all designed by the same man. Only after browsing his staggeringly impressive visual resume online did I realize that he's also responsible for the theatrical posters for THE SOCIAL NETWORK, I'M STILL HERE and THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE-- some of the best theatrical posters created in recent memory-- not to mention the freakin' FINDING NEMO title treatment. Dude doesn't mess around.

Neil obviously doesn't need my help promoting his stuff, but nonetheless I wanted to share with any unfamiliar readers some of these beautiful pieces of his. Visit Kellerhouse.com to see more, where he has nicely arranged a flow of images that include peeks at alternate and unused versions of his iconic posters and Criterion covers. I love his creative type arrangements and the overall tone and photographic beauty of his images. For now the man remains a mystery; I would love to see some process posts from him, a blog, or an occasional tweet, if you're out there Neil!