I’ve written and re-written this blog post so many times it’s ridiculous, but it’s only because I’m REALLY excited about these announcements and I keep rambling. So, I’ll do it like this….
1. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka THE OSCARS) contacted us a few months back. They asked if they could start archiving everything we do. We freaked out and said yes. This is unreal. They have never done this with anyone outside of the studio system so it is an incredible honor. Here is the official press release….
ACADEMY LIBRARY AND ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE
TO ARCHIVE ART MOVIE POSTERS FROM MONDO
Beverly Hills, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Margaret Herrick Library is partnering with the Austin-based Alamo Drafthouse theater chain to archive the company’s growing collection of original film posters designed by contemporary graphic artists. The first group of the Alamo Drafthouse’s Mondo posters arriving at the Herrick will include the latest print, a poster for the classic horror film “Frankenstein” (1931), created by Drew Struzan.
The Alamo Drafthouse began producing limited-edition silkscreen posters in 2003. Mondo, the company’s art boutique, now produces more than 120 posters annually, and through it prominent artists such as Martin Ansin, Shepard Fairey, Olly Moss, Tyler Stout and Ken Taylor are commissioned to create new art for classic films, as well as alternative posters for contemporary movies such as “Inglourious Basterds,” “True Grit” and “Thor.”
“We are always seeking out the unusual, and the Mondo collection certainly fits the bill,” said the Academy’s graphic arts librarian, Anne Coco. “We are looking forward to working with the Alamo Drafthouse to ensure that its contribution to the art of movie posters will be around for future generations to appreciate.”
This ongoing gift from the Alamo Drafthouse will be housed along with the Herrick’s existing collection of more than 38,000 movie posters. The posters in the library’s collection are stored in climate-controlled vaults, and are scanned and entered into the library’s online catalog, where they can be viewed by the public.
“We’re extremely grateful to the Academy for its interest in archiving Mondo’s poster collection,” said Mondo Creative Director Justin Ishmael. “We’re fans of movie art, first and foremost, and to have our artists’ work archived alongside some of the classics of movie poster art is an incredible honor.”
The Margaret Herrick Library poster collection includes a wide range of works created by noted graphic artists, such as the Stenberg brothers’ constructivist poster for “Man with a Movie Camera” and Wiktor Gorka’s arresting poster for the Polish release of “Cabaret.” The library also holds all of the film posters designed by Saul Bass, including his groundbreaking key art for “The Man with the Golden Arm.”
Crazy, right?! So, if you read through that entire thing, you probably saw a name in there that hasn’t been associated with us before. DREW STRUZAN. I’ve kinda teased in the past about this by tweeting his business card and all of that, but it’s real. We’re doing a poster with him. Here it is….
2. Last year at San Diego Comic Con, I bought a book with a ton of Drew’s artwork and him talking about each piece. This book, to be exact. I read the entire thing the night I got it and one of the big things that he talked about was that most of the movies he wanted to do posters for came out before he was born and he would love to take a shot at them. So, I ended up getting in touch with him and letting him know that we could make that happen. A few months later, Kevin Tong and I went to his house and brought him some posters to show what we could do and he was in. Drew has never had a screenprinted poster done before and he was interested to see what we could do, so here we are. We’re working with Drew Struzan. The production on this thing is going to be OUTRAGEOUS, so when we get closer to releasing, I’ll have more news and pics.
3. With the announcement of the Academy wanting to archive our work, we decided that it was time to build a site showing off everything we’ve done. So, here it is…. WWW.MONDOARCHIVE.COM
There has never been a complete record of everything we’ve done, but this is it. Let me say this now….this is not complete. In the early days, the internet didn’t cover our poster releases, so there are some “lost” Mondo posters out there and we’re still unearthing them. It will be fun to get those up so always check back because there will be more added.
That’s it! Exciting, exciting stuff and the week is just beginning. Can you believe that we’ll actually have more news and releases this week, too?
-Justin
That’s fantastic! Congratulations!
This is all amazing news. Congratulations, Justin!!!
Congratulations guys!! Awesome fucking news. I’ll be looking to pick me up one of them beautiful Struzan Frankenstein posters.
This is such incredible news – and VERY well deserved. All of your posters are true works of art and I feel so lucky to have a few in my collection. Keep up the AMAZING work – I cannot wait to see what else you guys have in store. (Pun intended.)
Love you guys,
FrontRowHoe
Congrats guys! You guys earned it!
That’s a really nice poster.
Great news!!! Can’t wait…
AWESOME !
Exciting to see the recognition Mondo artworks are now getting. Well deserved!
Just when I thought I could ease off on these print drops…you drag me back in!
Drew Struzan..a god among movie poster artists!
If ever there was an excuse to do a massive production number on a product, its a Drew Struzan piece. If you guys make less than a thousand of that print, you’re going to piss off more people than you make happy.
Any plans to add the size of each print to the archive info? I have tons of these tucked away and can’t remember the sizes of most of them.
Congratulations guys!! This is crazy news! That poster looks amazing as well!
Well deserved recognition for mondo, its staff and artists
[...] of posters. I just don’t understand why the studios don’t go for them anymore.Source: Mondo via Super Punch /**/ Share and Enjoy:{lang:'en-GB'} [...]
Very nice. Congrats on both announcements!
I’ll second the request for a large run on the Frankenstein poster. I’ll by very upset if I miss out on this one!!!
Phenomenal news, well done! Looking forward to Frankie in holographic lasers that burn into your cerebral cortex… with free nuts and bolts!
Woot! awesome job guys. BTW – is this really the right URL?
MONDOARCHIVE.com
because that site isn’t about posters.
That’s incredible news! Congratulations to everyone!
Holy shit is the Struzan poster awesome! Nice to see Mondo getting the recognition it deserves. This will look nice alongside my Dracula and Wolfman posters.
I am so excited, I see a broken F5 key in my future
Awesome! I’ve always wanted a nice mondo archive like this to review all the releases, ever since the site took down the old “museum” portion back in 2008. Struzan is incredible and I’m looking forward to the release. Cheers!
That’s totally awesome! Congrats, guys!! Look forward to all the posters to come. Love the looking at the archive and all the posters I missed.
Any chance of putting up high-res pictures of the posters? What about selling high-resolution pictures of your posters?
if Drew is bored during his retirement, her should just do every poster he ever wanted to do. frankenstein is a great start.
king kong would be an amazing follow up. just sayin’.
[...] Fabuloso cartel del Frankestein de James Whale obra de Drew Struzan (vía Mondo) [...]
Right on Mondo, right on!
[...] On top of all the currently in development takes on this material, Mondo has just premiered a killer new art print for Frankenstein by none other than the legendary Drew [...]
[...] klicken kann und sollte. Um den offiziellen Pressetext über diese Neuigkeiten zu lesen müsst Ihr hier entlang. Tags: Drew Struzan, Frankenstein, Mondo, [...]
So when can we expect to get our grubby little mitts on this Frankenstein poster anyway? It would look KILLER next to my Ansin BRIDE poster….
DEAR GOD!
I need this so bad. How do I or, How should I keep posted on the progress of this one so I can snag??? I really cannot miss out on this poster. My life depends on it… Seriously.. I need this in my life….
-b
WOW! This is wonderful news. Congratulations! Go Green! Archive online.
[...] It’ll be very interesting to see how this one translates to the silkscreen printing process. To read more info about this dream collaboration, and to see the full image, head over to the Mondo Blog. [...]