The Unsung Heroes of Advertising

Film Posters have always been a source of inspiration and excitement for me. A well designed poster can elicit a feeling of excitement, mystery, or confusion for those who anticipate seeing the attached film. The artists who construct these pieces are some of the most underrated workers in the art industry, and very few have been able to make names of themselves. One of the very few who have made an amazing career of their poster art is Richard Amsel, the masterful genius known for work such as the posters for Indiana Jones, The Dark Crystal, The Muppet Movie, and The Sting. One of his greatest works is that of his poster for Raiders of the Lost Ark, a poster that would further define the franchise for its entire history.

The poster is foreboding, mysterious, historical, and exciting all at the same time. It is important to note when this poster appeared in theaters, Indiana Jones didn’t yet have the cultural status that he does today. It was a poster that would have to sell the franchise to an audience, and it’s execution is perfect in that regard. One of the many challenges for poster artists is that their work largely exists in reprints. Original poster art is a rare commodity, and even double-sided original reprints for theaters are rare and expensive. This work has to be created on hundreds of different printer, all with different standards of quality. The is an inability to create real texture as there is in a painting, but Amsel’s Raiders poster does exactly that.

The post instantly captures the time period of the film, not by using common tropes from the era, but by capturing Harrison Ford’s image as a clearly hand-drawn piece, using crosshatched lines and different forms of pencil shading to create his face and outfit. The whole piece is placed on a background that gives the image the feel of being printed on old leather or stone. It doesn’t have to have a huge depiction that the film is a 1930’s adventure serial; it says it all right on the poster itself through the subtle use of beautiful hand-drawn imagery. It’s so well designed that the rest of the added poster details, such as the film logo and credits seem painfully out of place, something that is clearly reflected in the poster’s decision to give the image its own place on the poster, instead of covering it with too many words.

Small images on the bottom, such as car chase, a mysterious figure, and Indiana and Marion dropping from the ceiling on a rope don’t give away specific scenes in the film but instead allude to the adventure that is to come. Amsel’s work is made to sell tickets to an unestablished franchise, and his work clearly captures the excitement, adventure, and historical mystery of the film. His work defined generations, and even his work on Indiana Jones itself would later become a major inspiration for Drew Struzan, who went on to create posters for the rest of the series, as well as Star Wars, Hook, and Back to the Future. Amsel mixes a blend of art and advertising amazingly, and captures the emotional tone of the film in a perfect representation.