29: Dot Graphics & Janus Films

29: Dot Graphics & Janus Films

The Poster Boys

This month, designers Brandon Schaefer and Sam Smith look at the iconic and unsung film posters created for Janus Films in the 70’s by Dot Graphics, the award-winning Denver-based design team of Lee Reedy and Robert Clayton. Across over two-dozen posters, Dot Graphics created bold and powerful key art for masterpieces of foreign cinema, showcasing their skill in typography, illustration, and art direction, old-school and computer-free. Years before the launch of the Criterion Collection, Reedy and Clayton foreshadowed a new graphic approach to film advertising in the arthouse industry. PLUS: a look in the Flat File at Dot’s one-sheet for KING KONG and the many other posters for the 1933 classic.

SHOW NOTES & LINKS

Connecting the Dots: Dot Graphics and Janus Fims Lee Reedy Agatha Christie illustrations by Tom Adams

Music selections: “Bass on Titles” opening theme, “The Magic Yard” from the VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS original soundtrack by Lubos Fiser; KING KONG original soundtrack by Max Steiner.

Follow Brandon Schaefer at @seekandspeak, and Sam Smith at @samsmyth.

Special thanks to producer Adrian Cobb.