About
A cautionary tale
My first poster
Comrades –
I grew up in a tiny village tucked away in the heart of the Cotswolds, in the west of England. In the 1970s, exhibition was feeling the pinch from television; as a result our nearest cinema was over twenty miles away, which is a long way when you’re six and an impatiently budding cinephile. So trips to the cinema felt rare and were much cherished.
There was a more regular source for my passions, however. I’d often see key art reproduced as advertisements in my Mickey Mouse or 2000AD comics. Seeing Robert McGinnis’ wonderful artwork for Live and Let Die for example — even in low-resolution black and white — meant on some level I could experience the film in the absence of actually seeing it. I remember imagining the films based on the details of each poster: the events that led up to this boat chase, or the appearance of that crocodile, or what could be causing that composition-defining explosion behind Roger Moore’s laconic, iconic figure. So I suppose my current vocation was in some way predestined.
It took some time for me to arrive where I am; a brace of aborted attempts at a real education and adventures in music retail kept me off the streets, until one day the fates smiled on me and lent me a bent copy of Photoshop 4.0 LE for the weekend. It’s not a great exaggeration to say Adobe saved my life. I have never looked back (but I have purchased legitimate versions).
It’s still my ambition to inspire in the viewer that same sense of excitement or intrigue that I felt lying on my bedroom floor leafing through monochrome advertisements: that need to discover precisely what feelings, ideas or emotions the key art represents, what treats and surprises are in store when the viewer steps into the darkened auditorium. For me cinema is still the most magical of mediums; having the opportunity to work with filmmakers and compressing their ideas into a single, reductive, seductive image is a dream come true. Hopefully there are some six-year-olds in country towns (with admittedly advanced art-house sensibilities) who may be similarly inspired.
I’ve yet to have a chance at designing a Bond poster, but like my six-year-old self, I live in hope…
Thanks for visiting and please feel free to get in touch.
