The Movie Poster Art of Reynold Brown

The Movie poster illustrator Reynold Brown (1917-1991) was one of Hollywood's most important poster illustrators with over 250 ad campaigns to his credit. He worked during the time that poster illustration was key to the success of a movie for it was the poster and its companion ads in print media (newspapers and magazines) that could assure the success of a movie. Brown was in demand because he could bring the audience in. What were the key features of his posters? Here is a look at some of the posters were detailed images so you can look at and study the features.

The posters illustration featured a number of elements that showed up in almost all of them. All of these elements have one purpose, attracting attention and convincing the viewer that the movie would feature something of interest to that viewer.

Stars: Portraits of the main stars of the movie, especially if they were considered important "draws" were featured. Brown had the special ability to do exceptional portraits of the stars. Working from a few images to determine the look of their features Brown could draw the stars with a wide range of emotions and head angles.

Thematic elements: Pictures that told the viewer what was the movie's theme, such as western, science-fiction or drama. The theme might be presented in the costumes of the characters or various scenes from the movie. Brown often did montage scenes combining different scenes from the movie with many characters. These were done in exceptional detail so that the images could be blown up to bill board size.

Romantic interest: Most movies tried to get in at least a bit of romantic interest or there was some sort of sexual exploitation. One of the most mild was the two keys stars kissing. if there was to be a love conflict then perhaps the source of conflict, another man or woman would be shown. Women could be expected to be placed lower within the poster and were generally although not always smaller. (Portrait sizes were usually determined by contracts with the stars.) Women were often shown with their blouses torn, their shoulders bared.

A look at a few of Reynold Brown's finest movie posters and a discussion of their important features. This area is under construction but there may already be something of interest here for you. The points  made above are further discussed in this area. The posters are shown complete and then with some details to show important elements.

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