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film
_what
poster for the documentary, the garden cadences.
_how
old friend and long standing collaborator, zsuzsanna kiraly asked that we might make a poster for her latest production, the garden cadences, a new film by dane komljen. we've made the posters for two previous films by dane, phantasiesätze and afterwater. we now have a good understanding of each other's work, and this time dane and zsuzsanna trusted us to make any poster we wanted for the film.

mollies is a queer-feminist collective that had been living at a trailer park next to ostkreuz train station in berlin for nearly a decade. the garden cadences documents their last summer there before being evicted. caspar made the poster in berlin after spending hours looking through the smithsonian institute's digital archives.
_link
flaneur-films.com/garden
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the feature film, great photo, lovely life.
_how
director amanda mustard contacted us out of the blue. her debut feature film, a documentary about her family's grim past, was about to premiere on HBO max. she wasn't happy with the posters that had been presented to her so far, and asked if we had any ideas.

the film is dark. it left us breathless at times. we knew we had to somehow touch upon this darkness from the confines of HBO vetted artwork. we presented a range of ideas and amanda chose the one you see here.

caspar made the poster in berlin by printing out many photographs from amanda's family archive and arranging them across a larger print-out of amanda's face. this collage was then itself photographed.

you can watch a trailer for the film here.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt11331792
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the biofeedback feature film, vfc.
_how
writer / director charles s. roy flew from montreal to new york to personally screen vfc for us. vfc is, as he put it, a "next generaation horror cinema experience". rather more like a virtual reality experience, vfc is not a film in any conventional sense. however it is also nothing like virtual reality.

to watch vfc you have to wear a headset. it's a headset that does two unusual things. it monitors your biofeedback and it plays audio. however it doesn't play audio through your ears, it plays audio into the bone of your skull. the reason the headset monitors your biofeedback is because vfc's soundtrack changes based on how you are physically reacting to the film. this means that for every person in the cinema vfc is different sonically, based on how the viewer feels about it visually.

conceptually the reason for offering such a unique soundtrack to the film is because the film's story is about a virus that is transmitted by audio into the minds of scientists at a research facility. as the virus spreads the various scientists in the film start to lose their mind. narratively similar in some ways to the plot of the film the thing, vfc offers an ineffable cinematic experience. for example imagine if you can those moments when the soundtrack to the film appears to jump from the cinema speakers into your head - the bone speakers in your headset making it feel like the sound virus is leaping physically inside you.

charles and caspar discussed at length ways of describing this experience with a poster. many ideas were on the table and in the end charles went with the image you see here. to capture the ear charles conducted a photoshoot in canada with the film's star elisapie. the rest of the poster was made in berlin by caspar with a printer, a scalpel, a bowl of water, a sponge, a desk and a camera.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt14526332
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the short film, jude.
_how
producer madeleine askwith of rathaus films asked that we might make a poster for a short film she'd just produced. the film is called jude and it's written and directed by jimmy goldblum.

we watched the film and were immediately taken by how smart and elegantly put together it was. shot on film, the piece captures the troubled yet somehow magical inner life of a teenage girl as she struggles with finding her own identity.

we suggested several ideas for the poster, and jimmy chose the one you see here. it involved printing out the "missing person" poster from the film and collaging it with a pencil drawing caspar made of the film's lead actress. the trick was that the drawing itself had to deliberately feel like the work of a teenage girl.
_tags
film poster
_what
poster for the feature film, joyland.
_how
producer apoorva charan reached out and asked that we might create a poster for joyland, a film co-written and directed by saim sadiq. the film, set in pakistan, is a beautifully crafted and emotionally complex drama that explores inner family politics with a notable level of realism and nuance. 

we presented a range of ideas and saim and apoorva asked us to the explore the one you see here. making the poster involved hand-drawing the floor tiles from the family home's inner courtyard, and then removing lotus flowers from this design to reveal the three main characters seemingly witnessing each other's indiscretions.

as a final touch, the blood of an animal slaughtered in their courtyard is smeared across a few of the remaining lotus flowers to provide a suggestive balance to the otherwise cheery name of the film.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt19719976
_awards
the film stage the best movie poster of 2023
posteritati best movie posters of 2023
seek and speak notable film posters of 2023
_tags
poster 1
poster 2
_what
posters for the short film, nearly never.
_how
writer / director peter franklyn banks got in touch after he saw our poster for the act of coming out. he sent us a copy of his debut short film, nearly never, and we leapt at the chance to work with him. the film is elegantly crafted and smart.

we presented a few ideas and peter chose the one you see here. the decision to make two posters that seem to be looking at each other came during the design process. caspar made the two posters by scanning in various card folders from a local stationery shop, and then inserting photographs laura mccluskey had taken on the film's set inside them.
_link
franklynbanks.com/nearly-never
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the feature film, caverna.
_how
directors hannah swayze and daniel contaldo asked that we might make the poster and titles for their debut feature film, caverna. the film follows two students of an experimental theater workshop in italy, as they are encouraged to blur the line between their nightmares and reality. 

we presented a series of ideas for the poster and after much discussion hannah and daniel went with the one you see here. charlotte gosch and caspar photographed their own hands in various poses in order to re-create a more demonic cat's cradle than the one seen in the film. charlotte then did all the caligraphy using a pen and ink, and ripped the black hole in the middle of the poster. caspar then drew the cyclops.

the title design took a direct lead from the poster design. you can see a small sample of that the film's trailer here
_link
imdb.com/title/tt15513248
_tags
titles 11
titles 10
titles 9
titles 8
titles 7
titles 6
titles 5
titles 4
titles 3
titles 2
titles 1
_what
title sequences for the feature film, sanctuary.
_how
editor lance edmands put us in touch with director zachary wigon and his producers. they were looking for someone to take care of the title design for their new film, sanctuary. the film was at that time on its way to the toronto film festival for its world premiere.

zach had some ideas about how he wanted the title sequence to be a part of the film's opening narrative sequence. after some discussion we settled on the treatment you see here, itself a visualisation of what it feels like when ideas or even simply words appear in your mind. the reason we did this will be obvious when you see the film.

the film has since been acquired and distributed by NEON you can watch the trailer here.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt15364972
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the short film, the violinist.
_how
producer fred winkler introduced us to writer and director katy mccarthy as she was looking for a film poster. katy had just finished her debut narrative short film, the violinist. the film makes for a thoughtful and challenging discussion around the subject of abortion, and we were immediately interested in how one would make a poster that tackled the same issues.

the short tells the story of a conservative texas state senator who reconsiders his anti-abortion views after being forcibly surgically connected to a woman; a woman whom he must keep alive with his own body for nine months. it is inspired by the essay a defense of abortion by judith jarvis thompson. 

we presented a series of ideas for the poster and katy went with the one you see here.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt21411332
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the feature film, family portrait.
_how
we were introduced to lucy kerr by rob rice at FID marseille film festival last year. she had then just finished shooting her debut feature film family portrait back in the states. fast forward to a couple of months back and lucy reached out again and asked that we might do the titles and the poster design for the very same film. 

the film is a remarkable piece of work. we watched it twice through the first time we sat with it. what you initially perceive to be one kind of film transforms into something entirely different as you watch it. the idea for the poster came very quickly to us on a call with lucy and her producer megan pickrell. the hard part was finding an old master painting we could use to successfully capture the treatment we were after. however when we stumbled upon the westwood children by joshua johnson we knew the search was over.

caspar made the poster in berlin with a printer, a scalpel and a camera. during the making of the poster the film was selected for the 2023 locarno film festival.
_link
lucy-kerr.com/family-portrait
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the short film, phalène.
_how
we were introduced to writer / director sarah-anaïs desbenoit by anaïs-tohe commaret some years ago now, and have remained fans of her work since. when she sent us her short film phalène we were struck at how beautifully she managed to communicate the film's other-worldly narrative without any dialogue. this of course spoke to us, because such is the silence of the film poster too.

sarah gave us carte blanche to create any kind of poster we wanted for the film. we went for a poster that obliquely relates the film's narrative using collaged graphic elements traced from the film itself.

during the making of the poster the film won the grand prix du jury at the champs-élysées film festival.
_link
mubi.com/films/phalene
_tags
poster 1
poster 4
poster 5
_what
poster for the documentary, knit's island.
_how
producer boris garavani reached out to us because of our work on dane komljen's film, afterwater. boris had produced an excellent new documentary called knit's island. the film's directors, ekiem barbier, guilhem causse and quentin l’helgoualc’h, had spent over 900 hours inside the online game dayZ during the COVID 19 lockdown, and edited the footage they'd captured into a cerebral, poetic, reality-questioning, video-game-verité documentary. the results were, we felt, nothing short of transcendent and we leapt at the chance of making a poster for the film.

we presented several ideas to the production team and the 5 posters you see here collectively represent the final chosen concept. creation of the work involved caspar printing and posting flyers around the city of berlin, and then returning to them later to photograph them. 

during the making of the poster the film won the visions du réel burning lights jury prize and the international critic award.
_link
squareeyesfilm.com/features/knits-island
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the documentary, nathan-ism.
_how
producer melanie levy reached out after seeing our work in mubi's best posters of 2022. a feature documentary, that she was working on was on its way to hotdocs film festival and they wanted a poster to mark the occasion. the film was called nathan-ism.

we watched the film and immediately fell in love with its discussion of history, memory, the stories we tell and why, and the nature of truth. pretty soon we were talking to the film's director elan golod and devising ways we could talk about this film in poster format. we presented a range of ideas and ultimately landed on the poster you see here, which was made with a laser printer, some thick paper, a scalpel, a scanner and a camera. 

the film tells the story of nathan hilu a jewish american man who was a prison guard at the nuremberg trials at the end of world war 2. the poster in return talks about the three different nathan's we see in the film - the young nathan, the old nathan and the nathan depicted in the drawings he made in remembrance of his time in nuremberg. the latter nathan, as the poster in part suggests, was a figure whose history was very much influenced by the older nathan's ageing mind. 
_link
imdb.com/title/tt27345532
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the feature film, falcon lake.
_how
yellow vale pictures are releasing charlotte le bon's excellent film, falcon lake, in the united states. justin timms at yellow vale reached out to us with an interest in us making a theatrical poster for the film. we presented a range of ideas and charlotte went with the poster you see here.

our approach here is in part an homage to the great work of swedish artists inka and niclas lindergard. it was created by taking a photograph of a light source with grease smeared on the camera lens. the effect was then overlayed on a behind the scenes photograph from the film.
_link
falconlakefilm.com
_awards
posteritati best movie posters of 2023
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the documentary short, nuisance bear.
_how
directors jack weisman and gabriela osio vanden got in touch when they knew their short film, nuisance bear, could be a contender for an oscar nomination. to that end they needed a poster to promote this possibility and encourage people to watch and vote for the film.

we watched their beautiful and moving piece of work and immediately had a very clear idea of what the poster should be. liza evseeva did the figure painting and caspar took care of the rest of the type and layout.
_link
nuisancebearfilm.com
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the feature film, maret.
_how
distributor vincent quenault and director laura schroeder reached out to us and asked that we might make a poster for laura's new film, maret. the film had been selected for the luxembourg city film festival and they wanted a poster to celebrate this. 

maret is an excellent film. it tells the story of an artist who quite suddenly loses the last 20 years of her memory. she then, after reacquainting herself with close friends, discovers that she might not be so interested in returning to the kind of person she used to be. 

we presented a series of concepts to laura and she chose the one you see here. we made it using photoshop, a printer, a scalpel blade and a camera. 
_link
lauraschroeder.net/film/maret
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the short film, scotty's vag.
_how
writer / director chaconne martin-berkowicz reached out to us when her new short film scotty's vag was selected for SXSW 2023. she'd seen our poster for we're all going to the world's fair, and was interested in seeing what we could do for her film.

the film is about a college freshman trying to impress an older girl during a slew of sorority hazing rituals. we dug the film and presented a handful of concepts we felt might be apt. chaconne chose the idea you see here. we made the poster using jello, a refrigerator, a large ceramic baking dish, a bathtub of hot water, a knife, a large format printer, an SLR camera and LED lights.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt26215538
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the documentary, out of time: the material issue story.
_how
director balin schneider contacted us because he needed a theatrical poster for his forthcoming feature length documentary about the power pop band, material issue. the documentary offers a moving account of the band's rise and sudden end with the suicide of the band's singer and song writer, jim ellison. we strove to make a poster that captured that sudden, tragic end to a band that had such potential.

the poster was made in photoshop and then printed out using a large format printer. we then ripped the poster in half and scanned it back in again against a black backdrop.

you can watch a trailer for the film here.
_link
arvoniafilms.com/outoftime
_tags
_what
poster for the short film, invincible.
_how
here's the second poster we made for vincent rené-lortie's excellent short film, invincible. the poster was released to celebrate the film now being selected for the clermont-ferrand short film festival.

caspar had the following to say about making this poster:

"for this poster i wanted to do a drawing of (the lead character) marc’s face in pencil. i wanted the drawing to feel a little like a map with various roads going off in different directions. this itself was done to echo marc’s desire to escape his confines throughout the film.

i then folded this drawing up in angular ways to leave marks like cuts or cracks across his face. taking some ink I then painted over some of the pencil drawn lines, but only where i could still see them after the folds were made. afterwards i unfolded the resulting half pencil / half ink image, and scanned the whole thing back into the computer to make a poster with it.

the idea here was that because of marc’s screw-ups and fuck-ups we never quite get to see the entirely brilliant person he clearly could have been. hence certain folds in the paper preventing the ink from completing the final painting of marc, leaving just a fractured image of him instead."
_link
vincentrenelortie.com/film/invincible
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the feature film, birth/rebirth.
_how
writers laura moss and brendan j. o'brien are old friends. we used to share a studio together in new york. it was laura's short film fry day that gave us our first film poster award at SXSW in 2017. when laura wrote to us and told us her first feature film had gotten into sundance, we were thrilled when they asked us once again to work with them on a poster. 

after watching their radical film, we presented a range of ideas, and the collage approach you see here was one that laura gravitated toward. after trying 3-4 different collages of both stills from the film and behind the scenes photographs, we landed on the one you see here. 
_link
imdb.com/title/tt9048804
_tags
main title
_what
title sequences for the feature film, aftersun.
_how
a few days before the 2022 cannes film festival producer adele romanski reached out and asked if we had the time to create the title sequence for a new film she had produced called aftersun. we connected with the film on a numer of levels and immediately committed to the work.

caspar sent the director, charlotte wells, some typeface ideas based on the film’s overall mood and his experiences of growing up in the 90s. they then began work on customizing and animating the chosen typeface in a fashion that charlotte and he felt appropriate to the tone of the film. all the while caspar’s brother josiah got to work on creating the end crawl.

you can read more about our involvement in the project here, and you can watch the titles themselves here.
_link
artofthetitle.com/title/aftersun
_tags
_what
poster for the short film, prep.
_how
producer raymond knudsen returned and asked us to make a poster for his new film, prep. this time raymond was in the director's chair and his film is a frenetic, personal insight into the world of body building. we loved the film and presented a range of poster ideas for raymond to choose from. he selected the one you see here. the collaged juxtaposition was our attempt to tackle the particular psychosis suffered by the protagonist in the film.
_link
bigbluepictures.com/soon
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the documentary short, tito.
_how
taylor mcintosh is the producer and editor of the extraordinary documentary short, tito. the film was shot by kervens "tito" jimenez whilst in pre-trial detention in haiti. taylor got in touch whilst still editing the film and asked us to create a poster and titles for the film. 

we started with the film's titles, and then moved onto the poster. we presented a series of ideas for the poster and taylor went with what you see here. caspar painted the image on the poster using black ink on paper and then scanned it in. he then laid out the rest of the poster from there, leaving in the slight tilt on the image introduced by the scanner because it echoed the intensely hand-held nature of the film .

the film to have its world premiere at the international rotterdamn film festival

you can watch the trailer for the film with some of our title design included, here.
_link
iffr.com/en/iffr/2023/films/tito
_tags
_what
poster for the short film, daron, daron colbert.
_how
friend and collaborator, kevin steen, reached out and asked that we make the poser for his short film, daron, daron colbert. the film had already had its world premiere at the locarno film festival, and was now on its way to clermont-ferrand short film festival in france. 

we had already made the titles for the film and so knew it well. we presented a series of ideas for the poster and kevin immediately went with the idea you see here. soon we were printing out the type onto large pieces of paper and sand papering it by hand. 
_link
rathausfilms.com/projects/daron-colbert
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the short film, marungka tjalatjunu (dipped in black).
_how
australian photographer and filmmaker matthew thorne reached out to us when his film, marungka tjalatjunu (dipped in black), got into the adelaide film festival. he and his co-director derik lynch wanted a poster to celebrate this.

we watched this beautiful film a few times and then presented a series of ideas for the poster. matthew and derik then selected the one you see here. hand painted in black ink on paper, the poster will be available as a print with a series of different background colours.
_link
matthewjjthorne.com/work/marungka-tjalantjunu
_tags
_what
film poster for the short film, maria schneider, 1983.
_how
scott macaulay of filmmaker magazine introduced us to director elisabeth subrin and producer helen olive, who were looking for a poster for their film, maria schneider, 1983. as huge fans of maria schneider we leapt at the chance to make a poster for this delicate, thoughtful and provocative film. we presented a series of ideas and elisabeth chose the one you see here. 

the drawing was hand-painted using black ink and then scanned in and inverted.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt19889104
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the short film, invincible.
_how
director vincent rené-lortie got in touch with us after seeing our work for carol nguyen's two films, no crying at the dinner table and nanitic. vincent had a new short film on its way to festivals that he wanted a poster for. the film, which is great, is called invincible.

the poster you see here is one of two we made in support of the film. caspar had the following to say about making this particular poster:

"we wanted to make a poster that spoke to the dual invincibilities (the lead character) marc feels, both when he burns his hand with a flame and when he holds his breath underwater.

to do this i made a poster that looks in some ways like a playing card. the playing card device allowed me to depict a figure that is at the same time on fire and sinking under the water. i made the entire poster using cut-up pieces of coloured paper, as paper is both something that can burn to ash, and get wet and fall apart.

the intention here was to make an image that encapsulates the film, with a subtext that suggests the elemental qualities of the film's narrative (fire and water being the two fatal extremes in the film). the playing card device of course suggests also the “gamble" marc makes with his life."

you can watch a trailer for the film here.
_link
vincentrenelortie.com/film/invincible
_tags
title card 3
title card 1
title card 2
title card 4
title card 5
title card 6
title card 7
title card 8
title card 9
_what
titles for the feature film, the inspection.
_how
long-standing collaborator elegance bratton reached out and asked that we assist him in creating titles for his debut feature film, the inspection, which was to be produced and distributed by A24 films. the film is a personal story based on elegance's own experiences as a young, gay man who, rejected by his own mother, entered the military as a way of getting off the streets of new york and finding some self respect. what transpires is a drama that illustrates the complexities of being a homosexual in the army and a parable of self discovery and definition.

we sent elegance a series of typographic ideas for the titles and elegance picked the styles you see here. the resulting mixing of typefaces used, to us, suggested the idea of being a sensitive man in a tough military environment. both typefaces are beautiful and imperfect in their own ways and together suggested in this way the film's overall narrative. elegance then asked that we colour the text gold to reflect his feelings about how he felt about the story. 
_link
a24films.com/films/inspection
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the short film, weapons and their names.
_how
producer raymond knudsen reached out to us. his company big blue pictures was wrapping up a short film directed by melina valdez. we loved many things about the short and soon caspar and melina were talking on the phone. the poster you see here they hope expresses a combination of things about the psychology embedded in subtle ways into the film. 

the poster was made with a printer, a sponge, a bowl of water and a camera.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt14668858
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the short film, nanitic.
_how
carol nguyen got back in touch when her short film, nanitic, was on its way to the cannes film festival market. she and caspar made the poster for the short over a long weekend, based on an idea they came up with over the phone between vietnam and london. the film has since been selected for the toronto international film festival. we hope the poster raises some questions. questions we won't spoil for you now with answers, at least not until the film has come out.
_link
carolnguyenfilms.com/nanitic
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the feature film, see for me.
_how
julie strifler from wildling pictures got in touch. she was looking for a poster for their latest film see for me. the film was on its way to the tribeca film festival. we watched the film and soon were talking to the film's director randall okita. we pitched, amongst other things, the idea you see here.

in order to make the poster we took a hammer to an iphone and photographed it in various stages of its collapse. the poster was then designed proportionately to the phone in order to look like the film's blind protagonist was peering, not just through a crack in a door, but also through a phone screen. such is the film's narrative. 
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the hybrid documentary, the act of coming out.
_how
filmmaker alexandra stergiou reached out and asked that we might make a poster for her new hybrid documentary, the act of coming out. the film has been released by the new yorker magazine and is comprised of a series of filmed auditions / interviews with queer and trans actors about what alexandra describes as "the never ending process of coming out." it's a beautiful, moving and seemingly effortless piece of filmmaking. we presented a series of ideas for the poster and the one you see here is the one alexandra went with. the final poster takes cues from the colour work of georges seurat, henri matisse and andy warhol in order to articulate its point.

you can watch the film here, and you can purchase a 27x40 inch copy of the poster from our print shop here.
_link
newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-documentary/what-exactly-does-it-mean-to-come-out-lgbtq-alexandra-stergiou
_awards
mubi movie poster of the week
mubi movie poster of the year
posteritati best movie posters of 2022
kottke best movie posters of 2022
seek and speak notable film posters of 2022
kunstbibliothek berlin permanent collection
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the feature film, way out ahead of us.
_how
jordan mattos introduced us to rob rice and his beautiful film, way out ahead of us. rob and caspar hit the ground running. immediately the conversation turned to how they could make a poster together, remotely, between los angeles and berlin, using all the original props from the film. the final piece you see here is replete with rob performing a light painting in the background behind the still life; a gesture that almost by accident captured the very essence of the film. the poster was inspired in part by 17th century spanish still life paintings.
_link
redmilkroe.com/WAY-OUT-AHEAD-OF-US
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the short film, the pass.
_how
melanie akoka put us in touch with writer / director pepi ginsberg. pepi's latest short film was headed to the cannes film festival and she wanted a poster to support it. the film is beautiful, subtle, emotionally complex and elegantly shot on film. it's about a kid looking for a place to swim on a hot day, and the delicate physical and emotional encounters he has along the way.

pepi wanted a poster that used the lake water as a metaphor both for the feeling being trapped and of course for the emotions beneath the surface in the film. the final result involved us making collage of a print-out and cut-out bust of the film's protagonist placed into the translucent "waves" of a plastic, draw-string bag.
_link
pepiginsberg.com/projects/the-pass
_tags
_what
poster for the short film, bruised fruit tastes sweeter.
_how
jake kolton was introduced to us by matthew puccini. he wanted a new poster for his short film, bruised fruit tastes sweeter. the film was about to have its online premiere at nobudge.com

we talked on the phone for a while, throwing various ideas around. the moment we mentioned this idea of making a still life with two pears, peeled, drenched and positioned as if they were having sex, jake said that was it. soon we were buying and peeling heaps of pears, and photographing the scene you see here on the poster. 

it's a great film. if you have the means, do watch it via the link below. 
_link
nobudge.com/bruised-fruit-tastes-sweeter
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the feature film, futra days.
_how
director ryan david reached out to us in the hope that we'd create the poster and titles for his new feature film, futra days. the film is a deep psychological, psychedelic trip that takes a rather dickensian approach to the larger existential questions. the poster you see here was one of several ideas we pitched. long-standing collaborator john delucca brought his typical brilliance to the fore and took care of the lion's share of the work here.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt6209774
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the feature film, i blame society.
_how
writer / director gillian wallace horvat got in touch with us because of our work on we're all going to the world's fair. her film i blame society was about to be released online and she wanted a new poster to go with. we explored several ideas before settling on this one - a poster that talks about being ignored, neglected and trodden on as a woman in the film industry, to the point of wanting to kill. 

once the idea was established gillian asked lee jameson to take some photos of her brandishing a knife. we took it from there, processing the images and the type, and then collaging small fragments of other posters over her.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt11469196
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the feature film, afterwater.
_how
dane komljen and zsuzsanna kiraly reached out once again to collaborate on the poster for dane's latest film, afterwater. the film is a delicious, experimental mixture of ideas and approaches to filmmaking. we presented several ideas for a poster and dane chose the one you see here. 

after printing our design out, we submerged the paper in water and photographed it whilst rippling the water with our hands. of the various exposures we captured, this one seemed to illustrate best the (sometimes dancing, sometimes swimming) figures in a landscape that the film so beautifully presented us with. 
_link
imdb.com/title/tt12386022
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the feature film, echo.
_how
zsuzsanna kiraly put us in touch with mareike and hannes at petrolio as they were looking for a poster for their forthcoming feature, echo. the film operates on several levels and makes for delicate and layered look at the contemporary german psyche. for the poster we presented several ideas and mareike chose the one you see here.
_link
petroliofilm.de
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the feature documentary, i didn't see you there.
_how
director reid davenport got in touch and asked that we might make a poster for his new film, i didn't see you there. it had just gotten into sundance and he was a fan our work for 'a fire in the cold season', 'the life and death of yosef and zilli' and 'the great void.'

reid's film immediately struck us as unique in its point of view, aesthetic and intention. in talking to him on the phone we agreed upon the poster concept you see here. we then asked reid to send some photographs of himself in his wheelchair. we printed these photos out on card, cut out reid's silhouette from the card, and took photographs of the shadow it cast on the wall.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt16358560
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the short film, bleach.
_how
producer emmanuel hessler got in touch with us after seeing our no crying and the dinner table poster. he asked that we consider making a poster for bleach, a short film he'd recently produced. we watched the film and soon found ourselves talking to director mattias graham

it was during our discussions with mattias that we came up with an idea that we felt captured the film's narrative and tone. not long after that he was taking some photographs for us in montreal, canada. where the film was made. the still life images he captured we then turned onto the poster you see here.
_tags
poster
animated poster
_what
poster for the feature film, we're all going to the world's fair.
_how
we met writer / director jane schoenbrun about 10 years ago, right when we were first getting into making film posters. to see them finally put together such an extraordinary debut feature film is thrilling. to be asked to make the theatrical poster for it, even more so. 

the poster is our attempt to talk about the delicate and beautiful relationship at the core of the film. 

you can watch the trailer for the film here.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt13648224
_awards
mubi movie poster of the day
mubi movie poster of the year
posteritati best movie posters of 2022
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the short film, hangman.
_how
writer / director sam upton came back to us with an interest in our making another film poster for him. this time it was for a short film he'd written and directed called hangman. we loved the film and presented a range of ideas for the poster. sam picked the one you see here; itself a subliminal play on the film's title, and a tongue-in-check nod to the denouement of the film.

the poster was made with a combination of elements. the first being a photoshoot sam conducted himself with tia the lizard who co-stars in the film. the second being an egg caspar fried in his studio in berlin.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt14103074
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the feature film, karmalink.
_how
producer valerie steinberg asked us to design the poster and titles for this her debut feature film. the film was written and directed by jake wachtel and is a cambodian science fiction tale about one man's unusual search for enlightenment. it is a complex and visually beautiful piece, in large-part because of the futuristic cambodian setting. the poster you see here gives you both a hint as to the film's narrative and it's rich visual beauty.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt10396450
_tags
_what
poster for the feature film, le prince.
_how
lisa bierwirth is a friend and le prince is her debut feature film. the film marks the second in our on-going collaboration with komplizen film in berlin. the film is a particularly realistic sketch of a relationship between a man and a woman from different worlds in frankfurt. we presented a series of ideas with which to tackle the complexity of emotional drama in the film, and lisa selected the idea you see here. caspar painted the poster during his travels between england and germany this summer.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt10603372
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the feature film, the last son.
_how
our friend and long-standing collaborator, tim sutton is back with his latest feature film. it's a western called "the last son." it was shot during the pandemic in montana. it's a film about an outlaw with a curse on his head. the curse dictates that one of his own children will one day kill him. he consequently proceeds to try and kill all his children, right down to the last son. this poster is our attempt to talk about, amongst other things, how you cannot kill can idea. 
_link
imdb.com/title/tt1800393
_awards
mubi movie poster of the day
creative review best posters of the year 2021
_tags
_what
poster for the feature documentary, the great void.
_how
our friend and long-standing collaborator zsuzsanna kiraly put us in touch with maxi haslberger at amerika film. maxi and director sebastian mez were looking for a poster for their film, the great void.  the film depicts a world subtly emptied of human beings and their vehicles only to reveal the bleak landscapes they've left behind. the poster you see here is how we chose to interpret this cinematic idea in print.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt14554520
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the feature film, homebody.
_how
we were introduced to homebody director joseph sackett by our friend, the filmmaker francesca mirabella. joseph's film is about a boy who finds a way to inhabit and take control of a woman's body. it makes for a rather funny and moving metaphor for the genderqueer or transgender experience, if you will. we presented a series of ideas to joseph that we felt captured the essence of the film, and he went with the one you see here.
_link
homebodyfilm.com
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the short film, night music.
_how
director lukas huffman asked us to create a poster for his new short film, night music. the film tells the story, in brief, of john and alan lomax and their early 20th century recordings of american folk music. in this case the film follows the father and son as they gain access to a penitentiary to record african-american prisoner's songs.

after much discussion about various ways to approach the poster, we settled on this hand drawn and painted approach. the poster tries to speak simultaneously to the idea of a 1930s live "disc recording" and what was ultimately the uncredited, unpaid exploitation of black prisoners by white people.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt10186074
_tags
poster
_what
poster for the feature film, la boheme.
_how
opera director and video artist laine rettmer asked us to handle titles and poster duties for her feature film debut. the film is a modern reimagining of puccini's la boheme. it was shot during new york city's winter lockdown and makes for a particularly poignant reflection of those dark times.

our poster and title treatment reflect the stark modernism in laine's conceptual and visual approach to the opera. of particular note here is the typography. splitting the film's title up into four segments gave us an opportunity to speak about the four separate acts in the opera. on top of that the squared-off typeface used in combination with this formation echoes abstractly the windows of the various apartments within the same building that the opera was set.
_link
tricitiesopera.com/boheme-2021
_tags
poster 3
_what
film poster for the documentary short, digging for life.
_how
director joao queiroga got in touch with us after he saw our work on matthew puccini's film, dirty. he sent us a copy of his very beautiful, moving and probing documentary short, digging for life. he wanted us to design the opening title card and the poster for the film. the film follows the story of an african man enslaved in the diamond mines in angola. here is one of three posters we designed for the film that we drew by hand.
_link
diggingforlifefilm.com
_tags
poster 1
poster 2
_what
film poster for the documentary short, digging for life.
_how
director joao queiroga got in touch with us after he saw our work on matthew puccini's film, dirty. he sent us a copy of his very beautiful, moving and probing documentary short, digging for life. he wanted us to design the opening title card and the poster for the film. the film follows the story of an african man enslaved in the diamond mines in angola. here is one of three posters we designed for the film that uses a collage of still images taken from the footage.
_link
diggingforlifefilm.com
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the feature documentary, still standing.
_how
midnight marauder introduced us to director mirko pincelli. mirko asked us to watch a cut of his forthcoming new documentary that explores the life and culture of the sindhis, one of the oldest and least known civilisations in the world.

mirko wanted us to design a poster and some film titles for the film. we were entranced by the images in the film and moved greatly by the story of these often forgotten people. we presented a range of ideas and mirko went with this handmade, rather more experimental design you see here. it's a poster we feel talks about generations of sindhi people flowing like a river through time; a river like the great indus river upon the bank of which the sindhis first appeared.
_link
instagram.com/stillstanding.film
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the documentary, the love and death of yosef and zilli.
_how
director dean gold got in touch with us after seeing our poster work for the canadian films firecrackers, the great darkened days and anne at 13,000 feet. he sent us a copy of this his latest documentary and it floored us. it's an unflinchingly personal film and knowing we were to try and make a poster for it was particularly humbling. we've seen few films like it.

we presented a series of concepts for the poster. dean immediately went for the idea you see here as he felt it captured the feeling of his film best. caspar took the photograph used for the poster in his bedroom in new york city.
_link
yosefandzillimovie.com
_tags
poster
poster 2
_what
film poster for the feature film, a fire in the cold season.
_how
we made two posters for justin oakey's feature film a fire in the cold season. the first poster was a collaboration with graphic designer delphine dubuisson and fine artist clare newbolt. our intention with this poster was to use a combination of digital and physical texturing to allow us to speak metaphorically about the film's narrative. 

the second poster was a more direct and obvious interpretation of the film, offering a slightly altered mise-en-scene still as a way of tackling the film's psychological themes.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt8885868
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the feature film, superior.
_how
director erin vassilopoulos asked us to design both the poster and title sequence for her debut feature film, superior. the film is an 80s psychological thriller that explores the lives of two recently reunited identical twin sisters. as the twin's very different lives bleed together there's a feeling of yin and yang in terms of the impact they have on each other both physically and emotionally. it's this concept that we chose to touch upon in the poster. 
_link
imdb.com/title/tt12373414
_tags
magazine cover
_what
redesign of the new york-based film journal, filmmaker magazine.
_how
this the winter issue of filmmaker magazine further evolves the overall approach we've taken with the redesign, both inside and out. this time around charlotte gosch and i introduced some new typefaces to the magazine and used their large family of styles to talk about how a magazine of this kind has different "voices," be those the the voices of the filmmakers being interviewed, the magazine's writers or the magazine's designers.
_link
filmmakermagazine.com
_tags
_what
title sequences for the feature film, waves.
_how
director trey edward schults had a few ideas about how the opening titles for his new feature film, waves, should look and feel. he was keen to capture a certain, particular "florida feeling," the US state in which the film had been shot. in turn we suggested that a neon flicker of orange on top of the beautiful opening shot of the girl on her bike would hint nicely at the darker film to come. after finding the right colour, placing and treatment of the titles, we offered him some typeface options and he chose the one you see here.

for the closing titles trey had some unusual, abstract b-roll footage he'd shot in pre-production and we suggested we scroll black type through it so that at times the words literally got lost in the darker colours. this was one of those rare projects where everything we did the director and A24, the film's production company, loved straight off the bat.
_link
a24films.com/films/waves
_tags
magazine cover
_what
redesign of the new york-based film journal, filmmaker magazine.
_how
this the fall issue of filmmaker magazine further evolves the overall approach we've taken with the redesign, both inside and out. after the summer's "pandemic digital-only issue" charlotte gosch and i wanted to celebrate the return to print with an experimental design. we explored the idea of "spatial depth," as hinted at in the magazine's logo, within the pages of a magazine. we blurred images and laid them over other images to give a sense of light, projected films and so on. we then used a brutalist-style chiaro scuro approach within the magazine's layouts to talk about what it is to move through space, particularly when entering the cinema to see a film in the darkness.
_link
filmmakermagazine.com
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the feature documentary short, no crying at the dinner table.
_how
director carol nguyen got in touch because of our poster work for matthew puccini's short film, dirty. on the eve of releasing her award winning short film, no crying at the dinner table online, she wanted a poster to celebrate the film's release into the world. we presented a range of ideas that we felt tackled different themes and emotions in the film, and carol chose the one you see here. itself a play on what it is to have to sweep one's emotions under the carpet.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt10413396
_tags
_what
film poster for the short film, dirty.
_how
writer / director, matthew puccini, got in touch with us because of our work on bug bite. his short film dirty was about to premiere on the criterion channel and he wanted to create a poster to celebrate that. we were immediately taken by the film, which is a particularly brave and sensitive film about a first time queer sexual encounter. after presenting a range of ideas, matthew went with the one you see here.
_link
criterionchannel.com/dirty
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the feature film, tito.
_how
here's the poster we designed for the online release of grace glowicki's searing, debut feature film, tito. making it's debut at SXSW film festival last year, grace and producer / co-star ben petrie use the film to explore one agoraphobic man's struggle to deal with the terrors of the outside world. collaborating once again with the inimitable charlotte gosch, this poster is our attempt to try and describe a range of feelings in the film in one image.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt7476866
_tags
magazine cover
_what
redesign of the new york-based film journal, filmmaker magazine.
_how
this the summer issue of filmmaker magazine further evolves the overall approach we've taken with the redesign, both inside and out. this time around, due to the global pandemic and printers being closed down, we redesigned the magazine for digital viewing only. charlotte gosch and i therefore changed the format of the magazine to suit the scrolling experience, as opposed to the physical page turning experience.
_link
filmmakermagazine.com
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the feature film, funny face.
_how
long-standing collaborator tim sutton asked us to take care of the posters and titles for his fifth feature film, funny face. the process with tim is always very fluid and open-ended. he brought some ideas to the table, we complimented those ideas and the poster you see here is one of a series we're developing for the film. putting into words why this poster works would perhaps spoil it, so we'll leave it to you to enjoy.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt11638942
_awards
the film stage 8th best movie poster of 2021
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the feature film, baamum nafi.
_how
producer maba ba got in touch and introduced us to his fellow senegalese countryman, director mamadou dia. after watching their beautiful film, charlotte gosch and i presented a range of ideas to them. the one you see here was a combination of two different ideas we'd had. baamum nafi is a brave and beautiful film, and we feel it's fitting that it has a brave and beautiful poster to go with it.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt10416008
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the feature film, anne at 13,000 feet.
_how
long-standing collaborators MDFF got in touch as they were putting the finishing touches on kazik radwanski's new feature film. they asked us to take care of both the film's title sequence and poster. after presenting a series of ideas for the poster, kazik and producer dan montgomery went with the concept you see here. 
_link
mdff.ca
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the feature film, the mountains are a dream that call to me.
_how
as part of our ongoing collaborations with rathaus films, director cedric cheung-lau and producers alexandra byer and madeleine askwith got in touch with regards to doing a poster for their new film. shot in nepal, edited in new york and on its way to the sundance film festival, this is a really special, beautiful and meditative piece of work. we did a series of posters for it, one of which you can see here.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt11389562
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the feature film, deine farbe.
_how
midnight marauder put us in touch with director, maria diane ventura. her debut feature was getting into festivals and she was after a poster that captured the essence of the film's narrative. we presented a series of ideas to her and here's the concept we ended up going with. it's inspired of course by the michelangelo pistoletto artwork, the ears of jasper johns.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt6734268
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the short film, blocks.
_how
producer valerie steinberg approached us to design the poster and titles for bridget moloney's short film, blocks. the film's on its way to the sundance film festival and they were looking for a way to articulate the film's darker undertones whilst keeping the poppy veneer. once again we collaborated with the brilliant photographer jeff brown, as we found a way to talk about the awkwardness of vomiting lego blocks at any given moment.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt10713294
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the documentary short film, coach.
_how
here's the second in a series of posters we made for jordan axelrod and matthew edward ellison's biting documentary about women's soccer, coach. this poster's design is obviously and lovingly a nod to hans hillmann's poster for the bunuel film, the criminal life of archibaldo de la cruz. we felt he might be ok with the appropriation given the context.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt7962246
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the feature documentary, pier kids.
_how
director elegance bratton approached us with this striking and beautiful film he'd made about three gay and transgender kids who are living homeless down on christopher street in manhattan. almost a direct sequel to the film paris is burning, we discussed with elegance ways of capturing the film's heart and soul. in the end we focussed on one of the characters in order to talk emotionally and physically about the film's themes and locations.
_link
pierkidsthelife.com
_awards
best poster design at indie memphis film festival.
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the short film, balk.
_how
director gabriel wilson was after a poster that captured the essence of his twisted little-league baseball comedy. we pitched the idea of using baseball cards in an psychological character reference capacity and he took to it. we don't often dabble in comedies but it turned out to be a worthwhile experiment. gabriel also had us do the titles for the short, which are of quite a different ilk. 
_link
imdb.com/title/tt8750864
_tags
film poster
_what
film poster for the short film, no man's land.
_how
director sam upton got in touch with a close to final cut of his short film. keen to find a more abstract and poetic interpretation of the film for the poster, he let us have carte blanche with the design. give or take a few minor tweaks, what you see here is pretty much the first draft.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt8685970
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the feature film, giraffe.
_how
anna sofie hartmann's new feature film is a beautiful and moving portrait of a woman lost and adrift both physically and emotionally in her life. we were asked to capture this feeling in poster form, and after presenting a range of ideas settled on the one you see here. it is an attempt to talk about fragments of a person blowing across a map; the feeling of not just being many places at once, but feeling like many things at once too.
_link
komplizenfilm.de/d/films/giraffe.html
_tags
poster
poster 2
_what
film poster for the feature film, de lo mio.
_how
long-time collaborator and producer, alexandra byer got in touch and asked us to work on the titles and poster for her this her latest project. soon we were talking to director diana peralta, and after presenting a series of ideas to her began work on creating two different posters for the film. the first of these posters conceptually it focusses on the idea of the film's two protagonists 'returning to their roots' in the dominican republic, where the film is set. the second poster was based on a hand-made-sign style often seen around the streets of the dominican republic. we drew a new stencil in this style, cut it out and spray painted it here in our new york studio.
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the short film, the eighth year of the emergency.
_how
maureen towey's short film 'the 8th year of the emergency' is about an elderly woman losing her mind to dementia. after much discussion about how best to approach a poster for this delicate and generous film, we settled on the idea of gently erasing a drawing of the lead actress's face. the drawing was made by caspar's father thomas newbolt in england, and then erased by caspar in new york.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt8274914
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the short film, coach.
_how
coach is a short documentary film about a female american soccer coach striving to attain a top-tier international coaching license in a field long dominated by men. producer courtney levinsohn encouraged us to produce a series of politically motivated posters in support of the film. one of which you can see here. 
_link
imdb.com/title/tt7962246
_tags
_what
film poster for the short film, metronome (in time).
_how
producer valerie steinberg asked that we create a poster for a short film she'd recently put together for director scott lochmus. the film plays with time and narrative structure around a musical theme. working again with long-standing collaborator jeff brown, we created a poster that touches upon these ideas in a more surrealist, metaphysical sense.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt8708960
_tags
poster
poster 2
poster 3
_what
film poster for the feature film, the great darkened days.
_how
seville international commissioned us to make a series of posters for maxime giroux's film, the great darkened days. here are a handful of designs that were not used in the end but which we felt were worth seeing nonetheless.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt8553192
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the feature film, mickey and the bear.
_how
annabelle attanasio and lizzie shapiro sent us a copy of their new feature film, which had just gotten into the SXSW film festival. we watched the film and talked it through with the filmmakers. three or four ideas immediately came to us and we set about working on the one that appealed to them most. the result, another collaboration with graphic designer charlotte gosch, is a piece of collage and heavy photoshop work. those who've seen the film will enjoy the more subtle touches in the piece, and those who haven't we hope will be lured in by the mysterious depictions and juxtapositions. 
_link
imdb.com/title/tt9614440
_tags
poster 2
_what
teaser poster for the in development feature film, skin of youth.
_how
director ash mayfair sent us the script for one of her forthcoming new feature films and told us that she'd had a fever dream about a face "floating... kinda like ripples in water... of a boy with intense eyes wearing red lipstick." she said the image had stuck with her and that, as a result, she was having photographs taken in vietnam of the boy she wanted to play the lead in the film. the thing she wanted us to try and figure out was how to create the rest of the image she'd had in her dream. 

when the images arrived of this beautiful boy in lipstick we applied a typographic treatment to them, and then had them printed very large on waterproof paper. we then bought a huge plastic tub, took it back to the studio and filled it with water. then, with the assistance of photographer and long-time collaborator jeff brown, we shot photographs of the photographs, literally underwater, whilst splashing around with our hands in order to distort the image and the text. the result is perhaps the most organic piece of design work we've ever produced.
_tags
poster 2
_what
film poster for the feature film, donnybrook.
_how
long-time collaborator and friend, tim sutton, asked us to create the poster for the world premiere of his 4th feature film, donnybrook. the film - based on the novel of the same name - offers a brutal insight into today's middle-american, working-class malaise. the poster was our attempt at offering a more abstract interpretation of the struggles within the film. the chain-linked fencing, to our eyes, looking like stick-figures grappling with each other in conflict. 

the second poster included here is based on an idea that tim had, and is an image that - whilst not wanting to spoil the story for anyone - will resonate particularly well with those that have seen the film. 
_link
ifcfilms.com/films/donnybrook
_tags
still
_what
end title sequence for the feature film, the song of sway lake.
_how
we met director ari gold at a party on his rooftop. in discussions about his forthcoming new film he revealed he was looking for a title sequence. sharing a love for the filmed title sequences of saul bass, we agreed to stay and touch and discuss things further. a few weeks later producer alexandra byer, cinematographer shabier kirchner and i found ourselves upstate filming by a lake. not long after that were cutting the sequence you see here into the film. the piece combines almost every aspect of what we do as a company, from record cover design through to film direction.
_link
swaylake.com
_tags
poster 1
poster 2
_what
film posters for the feature film, zoo.
_how
seville international commissioned us to design a poster for their forthcoming scandinavian feature film, zoo. after pitching a series of ideas they settled on two photo concepts that suggested, with a wink, what the film might be about. we turned to long-time collaborator jeff brown and put together a photoshoot here in new york that echoed certain scenes in the film.
_link
imdb.com/title/tt7624934
_tags
_what
redesign of the new york-based film journal, filmmaker magazine.
_how
with issue 104 of the magazine we decided to revamp the filmmaker logo once again. we didn't want to change the concept of it, but more the way in which we'd previously executed it. the original rendition had been hand drawn and this revised edition was more machine-made. the result is more refined and, we feel, a more fitting translation of our original concept.
_link
filmmakermagazine.com
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the feature film, firecrackers.
_how
canadian director and producer team jasmin mozaffari and caitlin grabham were familiar with our work for MDFF on films like 'how heavy this hammer' and 'fail to appear.' they sent us their film firecrackers with a note that underlined the efforts they were making to battle the patriarchy through cinema. after pitching several ideas to them that varied in experimentation and complexity, jasmin and caitlin went straight for the most complex and original approach. the result is a film poster quite unlike any other, that talks about the nature of the filmmaking as much as the socio-political subtext. we'd like to thank charlotte gosch for her help with the paintwork on the poster.
_link
prowlerfilm.com
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the feature film, the third wife.
_how
director ash mayfair sent us a cut of her debut feature film the moment it was ready. she was keen for us to handle both the poster and the film's title sequence. the film is so strong that our ideas came thick and fast. ash selected the approach you see here, which involved a new photoshoot with the film's actress in vietnam. 
_link
imdb.com/title/tt7692966
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the short film, ave maria + gay semiotics.
_how
director jeff verlanic got in touch and asked that we look at the rough cut of his latest short film that'd gotten into outfest. the film is a double bill of two shorts and so we immediately got talking about how to represent that in a single poster. the resulting design you see here gave us a chance to be a little playful and suggestive with regards to the nature of both films.
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the feature film, stray dolls.
_how
producer and co-writer charlotte rabate got in touch with us with an interest in us creating a poster for her latest production, stray dolls. after watching the film we met with director and co-writer sonejuhi sinha and discussed her intentions for the poster. we then presented a series of ideas, from which she selected two. what you see here is a hand-made poster that we felt spoke to the film both narratively and emotionally.
_awards
the film stage 4th best movie poster of 2020
_tags
_what
film poster for the feature film, i am a seagull.
_how
co-director alex harvey got in touch with us because of our work on filmmaker magazine. he was after a poster for his new hybrid-documentary, i am a seagull. the film documents the production and performance of chekhov's play, the seagull, upstate new york around lake lucille. we presented a range of ideas that we felt tackled the films multi-level narrative and 4th wall leaping dynamic. the final piece you see here talks about what it means to make a film that interleaves a rehearsal and play's full narrative at the same time.
_link
iamaseagull.com
_tags
poster
_what
film poster
_how
director dan carbone got in touch and asked us to check out a cut of his new documentary, phantom cowboys. we'd talked before about working together and it was this film's beautiful imagery and time traveling narrative that sealed the deal for us. we got to work putting together some ideas and after pursuing several quite different directions, we finally found truth in the colour separated and distorted treatment you see here.
_link
phantomcowboys.com
_tags
cover
_what
redesign of the new york-based film journal, filmmaker magazine.
_how
furthering the cover to cover redesign we established with issues 100 and 101, we this time took an accidentally out of focus, behind the scenes still from chloe zhao's the rider and used it to echo, amongst other things, the issue's refocussing on women filmmakers and the magazine's own logo treatment.
_link
filmmakermagazine.com
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the feature film, the party's just beginning
_how
producer mali elfman and writer / director karen gillan got in touch with us and expressed their interest in working with us based on our portfolio of poster work thus far. as they suspected, the film was something we found very easy to relate to and produce good work in support of. pretty soon the ideas were flowing thick and fast. we produced a series of posters throughout the process, and the one you see here felt like the best fit for the film's world premiere at the glasgow film festival
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the short film, hair wolf.
_how
producer valerie steinberg, who we'd originally worked with on the short film fry day, reached out to us to create a poster for a new short directed by mariama diallo, hair wolf. mariama had a very clear idea of what she wanted. the result is a poster based on the 1970s ads for afro sheen.
_tags
_what
redesign of the new york-based film journal, filmmaker magazine.
_how
here with issue 101 we continued to push the cover to cover redesign concept we'd developed with the 100th issue. this time we created a cover design that spoke to both the drama of the feature article 'wormwood', and the 'editors on their cuts' piece later in the issue.
_link
filmmakermagazine.com
_tags
_what
film poster for the feature film, sollers point.
_how
we first worked with matt porterfield on his short film, take what you can carry. more recently caspar was set photographer (and designed the title sequence) on his third feature film, sollers point. after playing with various ideas, matt selected one of caspar's photographs from the set as the final poster image. the typography, layout and colour were then selected to reflect the tough, unpretentious tone of the film.
_tags
25 new faces spread
_what
redesign of the new york-based film journal, filmmaker magazine.
_how
we pitched editor scott macaulay on the redesign of his longstanding, much respected, new york-based magazine and he said it was perfect timing. the forthcoming issue was to be his 100th issue, marking 25 years since he started the magazine with friends back in the early 90s. after some further discussion we discovered he shared a similar aesthetic interests to ours and soon the project was under way.

sharing a mutual admiration for each other's work we contacted our friend charlotte gosch in germany and asked her if she'd like to collaborate with us on the project. the whole magazine including the logo was redesigned over the space of about a month and a half. we hope the design speaks for itself as you move from page to page, but in short it represents an attempt to breathe new life into a word-heavy film journal and talk about the importance of the image in that context.
_link
filmmakermagazine.com
_tags
_what
film poster for the feature film, the strange ones.
_how
the film's producer michael prall got in touch with us in need of a poster for the film's world premiere at SXSW film festival. talking to directors lauren wolkstein and christopher radcliff it was immediately clear we were going to make something good together. their references were amongst some of our favourite posters and this in turn pushed us to present some of our best ideas. the result is a poster that keeps on giving, particularly once you've seen the film.
_link
thestrangeones.com
_tags
_what
poster for the short film, fry day.
_how
director laura moss approached us the moment she knew her film had been accepted into the SXSW film festival. we watched her film and very quickly realized it was not just well made, but more importantly psychologically right up our alley. we suggested a range of approaches for the poster and she picked this one. 

wonderfully the poster ended up winning the SXSW excellence in poster design award.
_awards
SXSW jury award for excellence in poster design.
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the feature film, dark night.
_how
here's the poster we made for the venice biennale screening of tim sutton's feature film, dark night. the poster was another collaboration with artist, thomas newbolt and is a more impressionistic take on the message of the film.
_tags
_what
film poster for the feature film, dark night.
_how
here's the poster we made for the BAMcinemafest 'closing night' screening of tim sutton's feature film, dark night. the film is based loosely on the 2012 aurora cinema shooting in the US.
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the feature film, those people.
_how
director joey kuhn reached out to us after a talk we did about film posters for the independent filmmaker project. we were very moved by his film and proceeded to develop several poster ideas with him. the design we eventually settled on is the hard-cropped, minimal piece that you see here. we felt it suggestive of the leading protagonists' outlook and ongoing relationship.
_link
thosepeoplefilm.com
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the feature film, live cargo.
_how
logan sandler was introduced to us by john baker, the producer of memphis. without giving too much away about the film, we wanted to explore notions of loss, emptiness and the deep, dark depth of the ocean that came to represent so much in this film. initially exploring two very different aesthetic directions, we settled on what you see here.

we also handled website and title sequence design duties on the film.
_link
livecargomovie.com
_tags
_what
film poster for the feature film, muito romantico.
_how
we were put in touch with distruktur (melissa dullius and gustavo jahn) by the producer of matt porterfield's 'take what you can carry'. excited to have a chance to work on a less conventional film, we were very taken by every frame of muito romantico. it was shot on film with a very static frame and this meant that every shot was so photographic, timeless and suggestive. this combined with its experimental narrative structure gave us the space to be more minimal, expressive and free-form in the poster realm. 
_link
facebook.com/muito.romantico.filme
_tags
_what
film poster for the feature film, dark night.
_how
here's the first poster for tim sutton's dark night, released to co-incide with the film's world premiere at the sundance film festival.
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the short film, take what you can carry.
_how
we were introduced to director matt porterfield by our friends on the memphis production crew. we quickly hit it off and matt asked us to create not just a poster but the title sequence for his new short film. the film has already been accepted by the berlin film festival. 
_tags
_what
poster for the feature film, valley of saints.
_how
director musa syeed got in touch and asked that we watch his film with a view to creating a poster for it. we were moved by the picture and set to work exploring 2-3 different visual directions that touched on key themes in the film. the design you see here is the one that musa felt closest to. it attempts to capture the sense of conflict surrounding the decisions the main character had to make in the story. pauline fourest was the lead designer on this project.
_link
valleyofsaints.com
_tags
_what
poster for the feature film, julia.
_how
as friends, we've spent many a long night in new york or los angeles discussing horror films with director matthew brown. when he asked us to create a poster for his new film julia, we were not just honoured but also found ourselves very in sync with what he was after. the poster you see here went through a series of different layouts, but the core of it remained the same from the outset. 
_link
fb.com/juliathemovie
_tags
album cover
_what
music video for the los angeles-based band, sonoio
_how
sonoio is one of the many side projects of alessandro cortini. the moment he sent us a demo of 'thanks for calling' we set to work devising a treatment that we felt did the song justice, psychologically and tonally. alessandro was keen not to be in the video this time, so matt sundin and caspar took the opportunity to devise a story that spoke to some of their own personal experiences. the result is a hitchcockian / felliniesque flight of fantasy.

you can read more about the making of the film on our blog here.
_link
sonoio.org
_tags
poster 5
poster 2
poster 3
poster 4
poster 1
poster 6
poster 7
poster 8
poster 9
poster 10
_what
posters for the feature film, call girl.
_how
call girl is a swedish thriller based on real life events in the 1970s. huge fans of the film for many reasons, we felt compelled to create the images you see here. please note that these posters were not commissioned by the filmmakers. they were created purely to promote and support what we believe to be a quite brilliant piece of filmmaking.

you can read more about the making of the posters here.
_link
facebook.com/callgirlofficial
_tags
poster
_what
film poster for the feature film, two step.
_how
long-time fans of alex johnson's film work, we were delighted to be asked to do a poster for his debut feature. set in austin texas, this thriller takes queues from the cohen brothers and pulls no punches. we all agreed from an early stage that some kind of brutal 'dance of death' diagram might be apt. the result makes good use of a casual, behind the scenes photo that their production team had kicking around. 
_link
twostepfilm.com
_tags
_what
record sleeve for the nashville-based band, makeup and vanity set.
_how
the threat of anthony scott burns and makeup and vanity set collaborating on a project together had been growing at an exciting rate. finally with the forthcoming release of burns' sci-fi short 'manifold,' we get a preview of things to come in the form of the score he asked makeup and vanity set to write for it. including two new, unreleased tracks, the score is now an EP soon to be released on telefuture records.

what you see here is the sleeve artwork we created to support the release. the record is available now for preorder here.
_link
makeupandvanityset.com
_tags
poster
_what
posters for the feature film, memphis.
_how
based on our previous work on PAVILION, the film's director tim sutton invited us to the set of his new feature MEMPHIS. once again he asked us handle the films posters, title sequence and online promotion. the poster you see here was created using a photograph that caspar took on set. the image is of the film's start, willis earl beal.

you can purchase a physical copy of this poster here.
_link
memphis-film.com
_tags
_what
film posters for the feature film, beyond the black rainbow.
_how
there are very few films that have you staying up the rest of the night after a screening just to make posters for them. beyond the black rainbow is one of those films. these posters were not commissioned by the filmmakers. they were created purely to promote and support what we believe to be a unique and quite brilliant piece of filmmaking.
_link
arboria.org
_tags
poster
VHS + poster
VHS
VHS 2
_what
VHS tape and poster for makeup and vanity set's film soundtrack, 88:88.
_how
this was a project that started out with MAVS sending us demos and whispering things about it possibly being a film soundtrack. we were then contacted by the film's director, joey ciccoline. joey showed us the film and sent some ideas he'd had for possible directions for the artwork. included in his package was a poster for the 1985 kid's science fiction film, the explorers. this poster single handedly informed the initial designs we created for the film soundtrack. these designs were then scrapped when joey then expressed interest more in a design that told you less about the narrative, and gave you simply a sense of mystery. 

fortunately MAVS then had the idea to do a parallel release in the form of a limited edition VHS cassette and poster. this would then come out later than the official film artwork, and give the original pieces we created a place to live. a tangent universe if you will.

you can see photos of the VHS tape here.
_link
8888film.com
_tags
cover artwork
outside spread
inside spread
poster
_what
artwork for 65daysofstatic's film soundtrack, silent running.
_how
in 2010 the glasgow film festival asked 65daysofstatic if they were interested in re-scoring a film of their choosing. the band, always interested in the idea of scoring films, accepted and chose the 1970s science fiction cult classic, silent running. the success of the score lead them to perform it live at various festivals throughout 2011 and finally record it in the studio for release. 

the band approached us in the summer, asking that we might put together a poster and a record cover of some description for the release. it was similarly an incredible opportunity that was by no means lost on us. the poster was in many ways a direct reference to the film, as discussed here. the final record sleeve you see to the left was something quite different, and you can read more about that here.
_link
65daysofstatic.com
_tags