Sure it’s February, but that’s not going to stop me from posting my favorite posters of 2011.   While most of the big studios were putting out their “business as usual” style posters, a few of them took some pretty cool chances and the results are amazing.  Sure, a lot of these are from Indie studios, but even a few of the big boys decided to get in the game. Of course some of these posters wound up being teasers and by the time the official one sheets were released all the creative energy was drained (Check out the entire WE BOUGHT A ZOO marketing campaign and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about) but at least they’re trying, right?All of these posters were pulled from Impawards.com, so thanks to those guys for continuing to put together the most extensive Poster database on the web.  Disagree with any of these?  Did I miss one of your favorites? Feel free to post it in the comments section below. 

	1. Hesher Designed By: Jeremy Saunders Artwork By: ?? By far my favorite poster of 2011.  I believe this poster was designed for Sundance, and don’t think it made it all the way to the finish line, but damn!  That’s a kickass poster. According to Saunders’ website, he doesn’t know who did the original illustration, so while I’m giving him credit for the design, it’s not his artwork.
	2. The Other Woman Designed By: Mojo Gorgeous official one sheet by the team over at Mojo.  Great use of use of water colors to create an amazing color pallet.
	3. Shame Designed By: Mark Carroll As far as I’m concerned, 2011 was the year of Mark Carroll.  His designs for Shame, Tree of Life (below) and Martha Marcy May Marlene are turning a lot of heads.
	4. Tree of Life Designed by: Mark Carroll A great example of how the perfect still can be more than enough to create a striking poster.
	5. We Bought A Zoo Designed By: ARSONAL A brilliant teaser poster that may have been overshadowed by the film’s obnoxious and uncreative marketing campaign around the holidays.  They really should have stuck with this one.
	6. Burning Palms Designed By: Gravillis Inc. Honestly, I don’t know the first thing about this film, but thought the poster was extremely well crafted.  In fact, this poster is so cool, I added the film to my Netflix Instant-Play queue and isn’t that the point of  poster?
	7. The Innkeepers Artwork & Design by: Tom Hodge Posters for director Ti West’s films are quickly becoming my gold standard for creative inspiration thanks to the multiple designs for The Innkeepers as well as the poster for West’s 2009 film THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL (Designed by Neil Kellerhouse)
	8. Contagion Designed By: Canyon Design Group A simple and effective poster that breaks away from the annoying habit of Studio’s throwing together a  head shot collage of their A-List ensemble.  Of course, they did that version as well, but lets not focus on it.
	9. Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune Designed By: Greenlight Creative A cracked record forming a peace sign…come on, that’s just awesome.
	10. 50/50 Designed By: Ignition Print Another great example of a poster getting to the core of  what the film’s about.  Combine that with a wonderful tagline and Seth Rogen’s hilarious expression and you’ve got yourself a great one sheet.
	11. Captain America: The First Avenger Designed By: BLT & Associates While this teaser poster doesn’t even come close to some of the amazing alternate marketing designs Paramount & Marvel put out prior to the film’s release, I still find it incredibly simple & well-crafted.

Honorable mentions:

A few more posters that didn’t break into the top 11, but are still worth pointing out.

Here’s a look at a quick poster I designed for THE TEXT.  A submission for the “Comedy Poster for Amazon Studios” Talenthouse contest. In the end, I didn’t win…but it was a ton of fun and I’m really happy with the way it came together.  Look for it in it’s permanent home under my portfolio section sometime soon.

I recently stumbled onto a FearNet post covering some of their favorite Illustrated Horror film posters, and while their list is solid, I feel like it left off a few of my all-time favorites. So, this list was born.  Plus, I’m bored with top ten lists, so this one goes to 11!

Did I miss one of your favorites?  If so, post it in the comments section below! 

Credits: I couldn’t have pulled this list together without the help of  Well Medicated’s list of 100 Illustrated Posters.  These posters were grabbed from IMP Awards and Wrong Side of the Art.

Whipped up this fun little poster after reading this Buzzfeed blog post, which included a “Dogman” holding an ax, among a list of 60 stock images said to be completely unusable. I respectively disagreed and this poster concept was born.

Thanks to my partners @ Doomed to Be Awesome for creating the tagline and the D2BA Facebook fans for voting.

Inspired by Fake Criterions and pulled from Doomed to Be Awesome’s Top Ten Awesome Horror Films, here are Fake Criterion Collection Covers for POLTERGEIST, ALIEN, HELLRAISER, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and THE DESCENT (#6-10 on the list.) My goal is to design the entire top ten list over the next few weeks, so keep an eye out for 1-5 over on my Tumblr.

As always, comments, feedback, etc is not only appreciated, but encouraged. Hope you enjoy viewing all of these as much as I did taking them.

Test Text here…what happens to the line now?

As always, comments, feedback, etc is not only appreciated, but encouraged. Hope you enjoy viewing all of these as much as I did taking them.

Anyone who knows me, can attest to the fact that I’m a huge Coen brothers fan. I’ve been man-crushing on Joel & Ethan for as far back as I can remember. I even wrote a paper deconstructing the sound design in Barton Fink for a class in Film School….super cool, right? Besides being amazing filmmakers, the Coens usually dazzle us with beautiful key art as well. So I decided to head back into the archives a bit and come up with my top 10 favorite Coen films (using the films’ one sheets, of course). Now, these are ranked by film, not by the poster design…so get off my back. Enjoy!

1. Barton Fink (1991)

2. Fargo (1996)

3. The Big Lebowski (1998)

4. No Country For Old Men (2007)

5. Miller’s Crossing (1990)

6. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

7. The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

8. Blood Simple (1984)

9. Raising Arizona (1987)

10. The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)

this is a temp fix