Have movie posters really gone downhill? Compared to the graphic masterpieces of the past – from the poster for Breakfast at Tiffanies to Apocalypse Now – classic movie posters exuded a style the modern orange/blue examples mostly fail to reach with their cheap explosions and format following designs. What if they could look a lot more like these examples from Berlin based Graphic Designer Rocco Malatesta? The design genre would certainly be more intriguing… and mind tickling.
Malatesta has reworked a large selection of modern movies (and a few other themes), creating imagery which draws from the story and cleverly reworks it into one bold image. His designs often combine two aspects of the film into one iconic object or scene… something we must think about for a short while to interpret.
Unlike much of the design we see today, his near minimalistic posters are brave enough to stray from the sharp and clean edges of their minimalist poster brethren, giving us some light texturing which is actually rather refreshing. Because the designs draw heavily from specific details within the films, they would be questionably effective for true marketing material, however, they are entertaining to look at and are certainly cool after you know the plot of the film. For more of his work, to purchase posters or to employ his talents, see roccomalatesta.com.
See Also The Lost Art of the Ghana Movie Poster
Yet another unsolicited, copyright-infringing “movie poster” that the artist wasn’t commissioned for and doesn’t have permission to produce. You should know that organizations like Mondo pay LOTS of money for licenses that allow them to print movie posters like this, and artists like these are breaking the law and hurting artists and art in general.
Man, what are you talking about? Arti is art. I love Rocco Malatesta’s work, he is a genius. These piece of art (yes art) are just a great homage to the movie probably he loves so bad. They are not official, you can’t read any name on it, no nothing but a stunning design.
FREE ART 4 EVER
You clearly misunderstand the point. Not understanding or caring about intellectual property and where the money goes is not punk, it’s irresponsible and BAD FOR ARTISTS THEMSELVES. Rocco isn’t “sticking it to the man”, he’s “sticking it to other artists”. These unlicensed, non-commissioned “movie posters” are hurting art and artists who do this for a living. I totally agree that some of these are very good, and I actually encourage Rocco to do as many movie posters as he likes. But all of them have the name of the movie, which is the intellectual property of each movie studio. If he wants to make movie posters as an “homage”, that’s fine. But don’t use the copyrighted property of the studio. Many poster artists do this the correct way, for instance here’s James Flames’ poster homage to the X-Files:
http://www.jamesflames.com/pages/STORE-XFiles.html
You’ll notice that he doesn’t infringe on the intellectual property of the owners of X-Files by putting the name “X-Files” on the poster. This is because he knows the rules and respects the artists who have actually paid for the right to make LEGALLY LICENSED posters for these movies. Organizations like Mondo have paid A LOT of money for the right to print their movie posters, which are legally licensed and therefore can contain the titles of the films, names of actors, etc. When artists make unlicensed movie posters that contain the intellectual property of studios, they’re actually taking money from the mouths of artists who have taken the time and money to respect other artists and understand how things need to be done to ensure that studios keep allowing artists to license their properties to make a profit.
The more people make unlicensed “homage” posters like these, the less movie studios will be likely to allow people like Mondo and artists like Kevin Tong, Olly Moss, etc. to make PROPERLY LICENSED art for a profit. Not only is what Rocco is doing bad for other artists, he’s likely to be sued by one of the movie studios he’s ripping off. So encourage him all you like, but the end result is not going to be beneficial for anyone.
Jason
I think I have understood what you mean but I do not agree at all. Have you really seen the work of Rocco? You’ve seen them all right? What Scarface says: “SCAR” and nothing else. The others are just mentioned. Blow? is just a word .. Drive, is just a word. I think Rocco is not a big one anyway and probably can not afford to have a poster with a license, that’s why he never put names of the directors or actors .. and “No country for old men” is misspelled on purpose. Mondo. I like what they do, but maybe one day also Rocco can be part of them, and I think he deserves so bad. I do not think he is not getting rich from this work. He engages in a discreet and clever way. This is what I see. There are other would-be artists on the market (see Society6) who publish horrible poster with trademarks, logos studies, actors, et .. very unscrupulous. Rocco is a good artist. Let’s write him an e-mail to encourage rather than throwing mud he doesn’t deserve. have fun. Jack
The one way to ensure that you never do a poster for Mondo is to make unlicensed, unsolicited movie posters. If you had any idea of the amount of work and money it takes to secure the rights to do a movie poster like Mondo does you might understand where I’m coming from. The fact that he’s not getting rich from these has nothing to do with the issue. No one’s throwing mud. In fact, I haven’t mentioned anything about his skills that wasn’t constructive, I actually encourage him to continue with projects that aren’t ripoffs.