What happened to movie posters? They used to be beautiful works of art. It seems like these days, movie posters, for the most part, have been distilled into Trajan Pro and a bunch of floating heads.
But just when I thought all hope was lost, I saw this poster on Toronto public transit. Now granted syphilis isn’t something I’d want to check out, but it’s nice to see that the art of the movie poster is not completely dead. Who knows where good old fashioned movie poster design will show up next.
Incidentally, James White at SignalNoise.com talks about and uses old movie posters as inspiration for his art all the time. (If don’t follow White’s work, you should. You can follow him on Twitter, here: @Signalnoise.)
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Ian Mackenzie
July 8, 2010 @ 9:44 am
Good call. I’m so tired of floating head movie posters – a zero-imagination byproduct of a celebrity-obsessed zeitgeist.
HOWEVER – Have you seen Laz Marquez’ takes on some old classics? Stunning.
Stuart Thursby
July 8, 2010 @ 10:03 am
Gotta love FontShop’s monthly look at movie posters: http://fontfeed.com/archives/screenfonts-may-2010/
As a kid, I remember most vividly the simpler posters: Batman (Michael Keaton version), Jurassic Park and the like. The odd poster in recent memory stands out to me as pieces of design (Burn After Reading, Moon, Inception) but those are usually either smaller-budget movies or done by particularly visionary directors…
Andrew Likakis
July 8, 2010 @ 10:16 am
Good old fashioned movie posters, including the PSA mentioned here, are printed at Flash.
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July 8, 2010 @ 10:22 am
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Michael Murphy
July 8, 2010 @ 10:24 am
That’s a great set Ian. It’s been a trend of late, reimagining posters that the studios would never touch.
Wes Anderson
Quentin Tarantino
and Stephen King adaptations
Andrew Long
July 8, 2010 @ 10:51 am
Fantastic, such a fun approach to public health. I love how the meme of movie posters has been co-opted to grab the attention of viewers on pretty much any subject. Toronto’s Jason Edmiston is an illustrator that is excellent with this genre. You should see his stuff at http://bit.ly/deGgkl He will also be at the Toronto Outdoor Art Show this weekend.
Mark Staplehurst
July 8, 2010 @ 3:29 pm
Seems to be quite the trend at the moment for designer’s to take on the movie poster in self motivated work. One of the most original takes on the form I’ve seen of late is that of Russian artist Andrey Kuznetsov ( http://trecool.es/2010/07/andrey-kuznetsov-carteles-de-cine-de-la-edad-media.html ). Arnold Schwarzenegger as the musket-wielding bicycle-riding Terminator is one of my favourites.
Jacoub Bondre
July 9, 2010 @ 1:26 pm
@Andrew Long Thanks, his work is remarkable.
@Stuart Thursby I haven’t seen that before. It will become a monthly read a long with photoshop disasters.
c jones
July 13, 2010 @ 10:40 am
Not all movie modern movie posters are bad. Ironically I think that a lot of horror movies have nice conceptual posters, even if the movies are really bad.
I would be nice to find/start an online collection of modern movie posters that are well done… I global scavenger hunt of sorts.
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