In 2016, I was commissioned to produce a classic illustrated poster for the Netflix Original Series 'Stranger Things'.
I worked with the design agency Contend on behalf of Netflix to create a piece of artwork that celebrated the 80's era of hand-painted movie posters. I began by studying my favorite posters by several of the legendary poster artists such as Drew Struzan, Bob Peak, John Alvin and Richard Amsel. I then experimented with ways to create traditional paint work using digital tools.
I was given a loose composition by Contend and worked with their Art Director Nate Sherman to explore ideas for how best to communicate the story in a single image. Netflix gave me rough cuts of the first few episodes and a library of still photography to work from.
After a few weeks of exploration, we settled on a composition and I was tasked with painting the finished poster. I used the Procreate app on my iPad Pro to do the preliminary sketches and for blocking the basic colors of the poster. I then exported these layers into Adobe Photoshop and began detailing the artwork at a much higher resolution.
The final poster is featured across all of Netflix' streaming platforms as the key art for the 'Stranger Things' series.
