Kong: Skull Island showcases 10 alternative movie posters crowdsourced by PosterSpy in New York
PosterSpy and Legendary Pictures challenged the creative industry to create new posters for recently released movie Kong: Skull Island, the best of which were displayed around the launch of the movie, in addition to being shared on social media channel.
Shortlisted Kong: Skull Island posters - artists: Aleksey Rico, Adan Arellano, Randy Queen
As Warner Bros Pictures and Legendary look to publicise the return of the Kong franchise, a new entry into a renewed cinematic universe that will see an eventual clash with Godzilla and more classic monsters, the studios reached out to the creative industries by setting a brief through PosterSpy, a website and community that challenges creatives to design alternative posters for seminal movies games, albums and more.
PosterSpy’s founder and manager, Jack Woodhams, said that studios have always looked to creative communities for user generated content, as posters and artwork are vital components in movie marketing: “The poster is released before the movie trailer and when visiting a cinema posters are seen everywhere. They then extend to advertisements on buses, the underground, billboards etc."
“There's also been a huge resurgence in illustrated poster art which has been slowly growing over the past 10 years,” he added that Marvel Studios is one of the groups pushing alternative artwork through UK artist Matt Ferguson, and 20th Century Fox recently worked with artist Dave Rapoza to create alternative art for Logan.
The crowdsourcing drive attracted more than 200 poster submissions across the four-week campaign, social media played a vital role in building a community at PosterSpy: “Although these briefs are in a way 'competitive' in their nature, artists are promoting work from friends and really getting together to show their love for alternative posters.”
As a result, 10 entries were displayed in the Bottleneck Gallery in Brooklyn, New York.
Woodhams said: “This for many artists could be a career shaping opportunity. Especially for international artists from Europe for example, having artwork displayed at such a notorious and exciting event is really something worth boasting about.
"You're an emerging artist opportunities to create art for blockbuster movies or even independent movies can be a huge way to get your work recognised by our global audience and industry professionals.”
On the collaboration, Legendary Pictures, said: “The Legendary Art Series supports the work of emerging talent and new artists with the PosterSpy collaboration on the Kong: Skull Island competition. We have been overwhelmed by the high quality, volume and popularity of the initiative and have really enjoyed giving these artists gallery exposure in New York.”