This sounds like one of the coolest jobs on earth, yet I had never considered what designing movie posters for a living would be like until I read this movie poster design tutorial by Jacob Cass. I relished the idea of taking in a script or movie treatment and the challenge of accurately representing a moving story to the right target audience through stand-still visuals.
I wondered how to begin, so I conducted a bit of research, and it looks like you have three options if you want to be a movie poster designer:
Go to film school. Schools such as the Vancouver Film School cover not only acting, directing, writing and production; but also marketing through design.
Work for a movie poster design company. I didn’t realize how many design firms specialize in this niche until I snooped around the web. You can find a list of movie poster design companies here. Go to each individual website to see if career, freelance or internship opportunities are available.
Be your own company. If there are so many companies specializing in the movie poster design niche, there’s no reason you can’t start one as well. Like any business, there’s plenty of established competition so make sure you do your research, craft a unique angle, learn to network within the industry and plan for success.
For inspiration, you can check out this list of the top 100 movie posters of all time and make sure your browse over to Posterwire.com, a blog with an exclusive focus on movie posters.
Image use from here.
