An iconic image depicting David Byrne (Talking Heads) in his ‘big suit’, from Stop Making Sense, a documentary that is considered among the best live concert films ever released. Filmed over three nights by Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs) it was the first film of its type to employ digital audio recording and is also unique in that it shows minimal footage of the audience, instead focusing on Byrne and the rest of the band as they join him on stage and build towards the crescendo at the end of the film.

It’s a simple but striking poster with what appears to be hand drawn type for the logo and credit block (if it’s actually a typeface I’ll happily stand corrected).

Update – as per John’s comment below, it’s likely that the text was done by graphic designer Pablo Ferro since it appears in the title sequence and is the same one seen in a number of his other works. Someone has even made a typeface called Pablo Skinny.

The photograph is by Adelle Lutz.

Here’s the (poor quality) original trailer.

‘The ultimate melt movie’, Street Trash, the classic 1987 splatter-fest, is as gore-filled and tasteless as this American one sheet suggests. The image of the unlucky tramp melting into the toilet was re-used for the multiple VHS and DVD releases and is definitely up there as one of the all-time great horror poster images. I remember reading/hearing who did the artwork but forgot to write it down so if anyone knows could they please get in touch or leave a comment.

It’s interesting that they used a quote from a British radio broadcaster, the late Tommy Vance, for the American poster, but it’s not hard to see why; If that combination of classic titles doesn’t make you want to watch the film then there’s no hope.

The splendid original trailer can be see on YouTube – “It’s easy to find us…. we’re all over the place.”

Here’s the IMDb page for the film. Vaguely interesting bit of trivia: I bought this one sheet from the person who plays the chef in the restaurant scene and only found out after the fact.

Great artwork featuring the legendary actor Robert Shaw in a dramatic pose for this largely forgotten pirate romp Swashbuckler. The film is known as Scarlet Buccaneer in several other English-speaking territories, including the UK. The Japanese poster featuring an adaptation of this artwork can be seen here.

The artwork on this poster is by the American artist John Solie who has been working as an illustrator for over 40 years. Film posters are just one aspect of his output, which also includes book and magazine covers, sculptures, portraits and work for NASA. He continues to paint today in Tucson, Arizona. Here are the posters by John Solie I have collected to date.

The original trailer can be viewed on IMDb.

This is actually a screen print and it has great texture to the paper. The last photo is an attempt to show this.

This is a ‘review’ one sheet and was originally meant to have local reviews printed into the blank space on the right side, as seen here.