Daybees, the newly-launched search engine for events, was granted access to the archives of Hollywood’s leading graphic designers in order to bring to light previously unseen drafts and rejected versions of a number of the world’s most iconic movie posters. The result is an astonishing series of unseen poster designs, many more avant-garde than the versions by the same illustrators’ that were green-lit by the studios and went on to achieve cult status.
Hollywood’s leading illustrators – including the legendary 92-year-old Bill Gold, who has designed thousands of movie posters since his career took-off when, as a young man in the Warner Bros art department, he was commissioned to design the poster for Casablanca (1942) – granted Daybees access to exploratory conceptual layouts for movies including The Exorcist, Ocean’s Eleven, Cool Hand Luke, and A Clockwork Orange.
These previously unseen, alternative designs – exhibited for the first time on www.daybees.com alongside the poster by the same artist that was ultimately given the green light – offer a thrilling glimpse into the creative process and the stunning movie posters that nearly were…
Bill Gold
As a young man in the Warner Brothers art department in 1942, one of Bill Gold’s first professional commissions was to create a poster for Casablanca. Over the intervening seventy years, he has designed over two thousand posters for movies of every genre. His extraordinary, prolific career spans eight decades, and he is universally acclaimed as Hollywood’s leading creative director. In 1994, Bill Gold was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Hollywood Reporter. Aged 92, he now lives in Connecticut. He attempted to retire in 2004, but was convinced by director Clint Eastwood to design posters in 2011 for J. Edgar: “Sixty years of Hollywood memories are richer because of Bill Gold,” said the tough-guy actor of his friend and colleague.
Bill Gold’s draft and alternative movie posters on display at www.daybees.com include: A Clockwork Orange, Dog Day Afternoon, Cool Hand Luke, The Exorcist, Mystic River, and Unforgiven.
Brian Fox
A leading name in creative advertising, Brian Fox oversaw the campaigns for several movie classics including E.T., Batman, The Matrix, as well as the international Harry Potter campaign. He started his career as a toy designer with plastic model manufacturer Revell, before launching B.D. Fox & Friends, Inc, in 1979. The one-man advertising and graphic arts company quickly grew into the entertainment business’s leading audiovisual, print and digital technology creative services agency. Brian sold the company in 2007, and is now a California-based consultant to independent movie distributors, creating marketing strategies and executing the creative materials for new movie releases.
Indika – James Verdesoto and Vivek Mathur
Even before graduating from Parsons School of Design in New York City, where he grew up, James Verdesoto won a national contest to design a movie poster. Sponsored by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the contest was to design the key art for the 1981 horror film The Burning. From then on James started the in-house creative services department at Miramax Films, and as Creative Director, went on to create campaigns for hits such as Pulp Fiction, The Crying Game, The Piano and over 200 other movies. In 1992, he co-founded Indika Entertainment Advertising with partner Vivek Mathur. Together they have created over 400 movie posters.
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