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It's Stanley Kubrick's birthday, so here's a thread about some of his posters along with some of the process behind them (Kubrick pictured here with Robert McCall, the artist behind the original release posters for 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1967)
‘A Clockwork Orange’ is credited to the agency Bill Gold Advertising and artist Philip Castle. First up is an account of the process by Bill Gold, from the now out of print Bill Gold: PosterWorks.
Gold’s rough comps, along with the aforementioned rejected design by Don Ivan Punchatz. Don repurposed the art for a book cover he was later hired to illustrate (The Case History of Comrade V.)
Philip Castle’s poster art for ‘A Clockwork Orange’ came after seeing a rough cut of the film, sketching, and working closely with Kubrick to develop the title treatment and imagery. He talks more about his process here https://stevemepstedblog.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/full-transcript-interview-with-illustrator-philip-castle/
The alt poster features art that originated on the film tie-in paperback by David Pelham. Kubrick didn't allow Penguin to stills for the cover, so Pelham commissioned an illustration. Unfortunately, the illustrator was late, the image unusable, so Pelham did the cover in a night.
‘Barry Lyndon’ is another from Bill Gold Advertising, with Charles Gehm handling illustration duties. Once again, Bill Gold talks about working with Kubrick to create the poster, from Bill Gold: PosterWorks.
The final poster with art from Gehm, along with Roy Andersen’s unused illustration, and the iconic minimal poster by French designer Jouineau Bourduge, who also worked on Path’s of Glory years earlier.
For ‘The Shining’, Kubrick initially hired Saul Bass' studio before replacing them with Bob Gusti in early 1978. Gusti didn't work out, and Bass' team were brought back by mid-78. From October of that year, an exchange of letters by Kubrick and Bass on developing the poster art.
231 logo sketches were created, with an additional 100+ that included title treatment options. More can be seen here https://thefilmstage.com/rejected-the-shining-poster-designs-from-saul-bass-with-stanley-kubricks-notes/ and here https://lwlies.com/articles/saul-bass-the-shining-concept-sketches/
For ‘Full Metal Jacket’, Kubrick asked Philip Castle if he knew anyone who could do something similar to Bass, sending a sketch for what he had in mind. Castle said he didn’t, but that he’d like to have a go at it. More on his final poster and process here https://stevemepstedblog.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/full-transcript-interview-with-illustrator-philip-castle/
Finally, an interview with Katharina Kubrick on her and her mother Christiane’s poster designs for ‘Eyes Wide Shut’. | “The feedback from the studio was: “You’ve got two of the most beautiful movie stars in the film industry – why are you using masks?” https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/interviews/katharina-kubrick-eyes-wide-shut
