Film Poster Designer Index

Published in

The Paradiso

9 min readJul 11, 2022

This list is my personal index to the much too often under-appreciated world of film poster design. I am not aiming to create a complete and finished list here. The people featured below are, in my opinion, the folk to look at for influential, renowned, or just different and cool movie poster design. A place to be inspired. This page will continue to change and grow over time.

— John Alvin (1948–2008) —

One of the most celebrated American cinematic artists. Alvin illustrated a multitude of film posters for American cinema and is credited for designing posters and key art for over 135 films. His style came to be known as Alvinesque throughout Hollywood.

Film posters by **John Alvin** for **The Lion King** (Roger Allers & Rob Minkoff, 1994) and **Blade Runner** (Ridley Scott, 1982)

— Richard Amsel (1947–1985) —

An American illustrator and graphic designer. His career, though brief, was prolific. Amsel created film posters, album artwork and magazine covers.

Film posters by **Richard Amsel** for **Raiders of the Lost Ark** (Steven Spielberg, 1981) and **Hello Dolly** (Gene Kelly, 1969)

— René Azcuy (1939–2019) —

A Cuban graphic designer at the Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinematograficos (ICAIC) and a professor of design. He often used high-contrast enlargements of images in extreme close up.

Film posters by **René Azcuy** for **Stolen Kisses** (François Truffaut, 1968) and **Lord Jim** (Richard Brooks, 1965)

— Eduardo Muñoz Bachs (1937–2001) —

A Cuban poster designer and comics artist. With no formal training in graphic design, Bachs made his first poster for the Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinematograficos (ICAIC) in 1960. This association lasted a lifetime, producing over 2,000 film posters for the institution.

Film posters by **Eduardo Muñoz Bachs** for **Red Desert** (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964) and **PlayTime** (Jacques Tati, 1967)

— Saul Bass (1920–1996) —

An American graphic designer and filmmaker. Bass is best known for his design of film title sequences, posters, and corporate logos. His ethic when designing posters and titles sequences was to “symbolise and summarise”, distilling the movies themes into one image. His work is THE place to go for outstanding film design.

Film posters by **Saul Bass** for **Vertigo** (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) and **The Fixer** (John Frankenheimer, 1968)

— Ercole Brini (1913–1989) —

An Italian visual artist. Brini is celebrated for his watercolour techniques. He made almost all the Italian posters for Audrey Hepburn movies.

Film posters by **Ercole Brini** for **Four Flies on Grey Velvet** (Dario Argento, 1971) and **Mamma Roma** (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1962)

— Reynold Brown (1917–1991) —

An American realist artist. Brown painted many Hollywood film posters. His career touched virtually every aspect of the illustration field.

Film posters by **Reynold Brown** for **Attack of the 50 Foot Woman** (Nathan H. Juran, 1958) and **House on Haunted Hill** (William Castle, 1959)

— Tom Chantrell (1916–2001) —

A British illustrator and film poster artist. He designed iconic posters for exploitation films, hammer horrors and British sex comedies. His career was ultimately cut off by the demise of these genres and the rise of computer-based design in the 1980s.

Film posters by **Tom Chantrell** for **One Million Years B.C.** (Don Chaffey, 1966) and **Star Wars** (George Lucas, 1977)

— Jakub Erol (1941–2018) —

A Polish poster designer. With his own individual style, Erol’s posters are always full of surprises and surrealist forms.

Film posters by **Jakub Erol** for **Weekend at Bernie’s** (Ted Kotcheff, 1989) and **Raiders of the Lost Ark** (Steven Spielberg, 1981)

— René Ferracci (1927–1982) —

A French visual artist. One of France’s most recognised film poster designers.

Film posters by **René Ferracci** for **The Phantom of Liberty** (Luis Buñuel, 1974) and **PlayTime** (Jacques Tati, 1967)

— Jerzy Flisak (1930–2008) —

A Polish poster artist and illustrator. Flisak’s film posters combine a thick-brush, painterly style with creative typography and satirical humour. He uses colour thoughtfully.

Film posters by Jerzy Flisak for **Two for the Road** (Stanley Donen, 1967) and **Paper Moon** (Peter Bogdanovich, 1973)

— Bill Gold (1921–2018) —

An American graphic designer. Maker of thousands of film posters, from Casablanca to The Exorcist. A legend.

Film posters by **Bill Gold** for **The Exorcist** (William Friedkin, 1973) and **Casablanca** (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

— Wiktor Górka (1922–2004) —

A Polish graphic designer. Górka worked with the biggest Polish publishers and film distributers, creating nearly 300 posters; alongside magazine and book covers, commercial logos and prints.

Film posters by **Wiktor Górka** for **Cabaret** (Bob Fosse, 1972) and **Kwaidan** (Masaki Kobayashi, 1964)

— Boris Grinsson (1907–1999) —

A French visual artist known for drawing the designs for over 2000 French film posters.

Film posters by **Boris Grinsson** for **From Russia with Love** (Terence Young, 1963) and **The Birds** (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963)

— Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) —

An American caricaturist best known for his black and white portraits of celebrities and Broadway stars. He created posters and key art for Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers.

Film posters by **Al Hirschfeld** for **Room Service** (William A. Seiter, 1938) and **The Devil’s Brother** (Hal Roach & Charley Rogers, 1933)

— Witold Janowski (1926–2006) —

A Polish graphic designer and illustrator. His style usually consists of combining simple shapes and a minimal colour palette into symbols for the films.

Film posters by **Witold Janowski** for **Oklahoma!** (Fred Zinnemann, 1955) and **Troje I Las** (Stanisław Wohl, 1963).

— Tom Jung (1929–) —

An American art director, graphic designer, illustrator and storyboard artist. He worked on the poster artwork for films such as Once Upon a Time in America, The Empire Strikes Back, and Plan 9 from Outer Space.

Film posters by **Tom Jung** for **Doctor Zhivago** (David Lean, 1965) and **The Lord of the Rings** (Ralph Bakshi, 1978)

— Roger Kastel (1932–) —

An American artist best known for the Jaws poster. However, he also did the artwork for The Empire Strikes Back poster, among others.

Film posters by Roger Kastel for **The Empire Strikes Back** (Irvin Kershner, 1980) and **Jaws** (Steven Spielberg, 1975)

— Andrzej Klimowski (1949–) —

A British artist and graphic designer. Klimowski’s techniques tend to lean toward those used in fine arts, such as drawing and printmaking. His posters also usually feature a segmented human figure.

Film posters by **Andrzej Klimowski** for **Nashville** (Robert Altman, 1975) and **Andrei Rublev** (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966)

— Andrzej Krajewski (1933–2018) —

A Polish poster designer, painter and graphic designer. Krajewski created posters and paintings in an art-deco and pop art style.

Film posters by **Andrzej Krajewski** for **The Blues Brothers** (John Landis, 1980) and **The Big Lebowski** (Joel Coen, 1998)

— Jan Lenica (1928–2001) —

A Polish artist. Lenica helped transform the animated film genre, designed theatre sets and costumes, illustrated children’s books, designed stamps and was a major part of the Polish School of Posters.

Film posters by Jan Lenica for **We Are All Murderers** (André Cayatte, 1952) and **Cul-de-sac** (Roman Polanski, 1966)

— Jan Mlodożeniec (1929–2000) —

A Polish graphic designer. Mlodożeniec was one of the most prominent members of the Polish School of Posters, authored more than four hundred posters, book covers, illustrations, and drawings.

Film posters by **Jan Mlodożeniec** for **Saint Jack** (Peter Bogdanovich, 1979) and Je t’aime, chérie (Roland Oehme, 1986)

— Noriyoshi Ohrai (1935–2015) —

A Japanese illustrator. An illustration Ohrai did of Star Wars for a science fiction magazine made its way to George Lucas, who liked it so much that he commissioned him to make the universal poster for The Empire Strikes Back.

Film posters by **Noriyoshi Ohrai** for **The Empire Strikes Back** (Irvin Kershner, 1980) and **Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla** (Kensho Yamashita, 1994)

— Andrzej Pągowski (1953–) —

A Polish graphic designer. Pągowski is known for creating unusual and memorable advertising campaigns. His works often feature handwriting.

Film posters by **Andrzej Pągowski** for **Starman** (John Carpenter, 1984) and **Seven Samurai** (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)

— Bob Peak (1927–1992) —

An American commercial illustrator. He is best known for his contributions toward the modern film poster.

Film posters by **Bob Peak** for **Apocalypse Now** (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) and **My Fair Lady** (George Cukor, 1964)

— Milos Reindl (1923–2002) —

A Czech-Canadian artist and graphic designer. Reindl is best known for his large scale paintings and film posters. He often employed collage, bold paintings and powerful lines, contributing massively to Czechoslovak graphic art.

Film posters by **Milos Reindl** for **On the Rope** (Ivo Novák, 1963) and **For Whom Havana Dances** (Vladimír Čech, 1962)

— Norman Rockwell (1894–1978) —

An American painter and illustration. One of America’s most beloved illustrators. His posters are all basically portraiture, and signed in a way that poster designers wouldn’t tend to be so prominently credited.

Film posters by **Norman Rockwell** for **The Magnificent Ambersons** (Orson Welles, 1942) and **The Song of Bernadette** (Henry King, 1943)

— Marian Stachurski (1931–1980) —

A Polish poster designer. Stachurski created film posters for both domestic and international films. He worked in a comical, cartoon style.

Film posteres by **Marian Stachurski** for **Placido** (Luis García Berlanga, 1961) and **West Side Story** (Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins, 1961)

— Franciszek Starowieyski (1930–2009) —

A Polish painter, draftsman, graphic designer, creator of posters and set designer. He made around 300 posters and is considered one of the most outstanding representatives of the Polish School of Posters.

Film posters by Franciszek Starowieyski for **The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie** (Luis Buñuel, 1972) and **Model Shop** (Jacques Demy, 1969)

— Drew Struzan (1947–) —

An American artist, illustrator, and cover designer. Struzan created more than 150 film posters, from Back to the Future to Big Trouble in Little China.

Film posters by **Drew Struzan** for **Big Trouble in Little China** (John Carpenter, 1986) and **Back to the Future** (Robert Zemeckis, 1985)

— Waldemar Swierzy (1931–2013) —

A Polish poster designer, graphic artist and book illustrator. Swierzy is one of the founders of the Polish School of Posters and has produced more than 1,500 posters. He is regarded as one of the finest poster artists.

Film posters by **Waldemar Swierzy** for **Midnight Cowboy** (John Schlesinger, 1969) and **Harakiri** (Masaki Kobayashi, 1962)

— Wiesław Wałkuski (1956–) —

A Polish painter and graphic designer. He has designed posters for major theatre and film productions.

Film posters by **Wiesław Wałkuski** for **Un Chien Andalou** (Luis Buñuel, 1929) and **Tootsie** (Sydney Pollack, 1982)

— Mieczyslaw Wasilewski (1942–) —

A Polish graphic designer. Wasilewski’s posters have mastered the art of the concise graphical image, condensing larger themes into symbols. He strives to keep everything formally sparse, allowing the art to simply express the message.

Film posters by **Mieczyslaw Wasilewski** for **Back to the Future** (Robert Zemeckis, 1985) and Crocodile Dundee (Peter Faiman, 1986)

— Wojciech Zamecznik (1923–1967) —

A Polish poster designer. Zamecznik designed over 200 posters. Jan Lenica said: “For Wojciech Zamecznik, a poster was a mathematical operation — he aimed at reducing complex patterns to the simplest solutions, a sum of two or three elements. He was keen on fusing photography and graphic signs, and often organised an entire poster around a single element.”