Slashfilm‘s Germain Lussier recently wrote about Mondo, an art collective that sprouted from the Alamo Drafthouse, a small series of cinemas famous for their treatment of the filmgoing expeience. Mondo is a group that has designed some of the most gorgeous collectible film posters over the past few years. As Lussier mentions, film posters are more of an afterthough as the years go by, but Mondo manages to reinvent them and turn them into an art form yet again.

So as more and more people start realizing that advertising a movie can be art, hopefully more and more companies come on board. Smaller studios, like IFC, FilmDistrict and others, are already working not only with Mondo, but with other artists to do their posters. And, in turn, some of those poster artists are entering the art world whether it be through the Mondo Gallery or somewhere else.

Poster art is not a new thing, though. In the past, smaller theaters made their own posters because it was a way to captivate a willing audience. Today, so few people go to a theatre, let alone look at posters, it’s become something of an after-thought. A single click on a website such as this one. But if cool, limited posters are released that people desire, and that supply and demand keep the right balance, Hollywood is going to take notice and realize a poster can be more than just an advertisement, it can be a promise a movie must live up to. 

I just hope that the same kind of artistry and dedication can be brought to the gaming world. With game covers becoming increasingly generic and uninspired, there’s definitely room for someone with real talent to reinvigorate the medium and bring a new level of appreciation to what’s on the box.

There’s a great collection of some of the designs here.