John Alvin was an inspiration to me and I didn’t even know it. Last Wednesday, he passed away. He was only 59.
You probably don’t know John Alvin by name, but if you’ve stepped foot in the cinema anytime in the last 30 years you know his work. He was a poster artist that was responsible for some of the most iconic poster work of not only my generation, but the generation before mine, going back to some of Mel Brooks’ earlier movies.
I took a look through the little gallery of posters that John Alvin created. There were over 135 movies that he created posters for but they are not all listed.
One of the side benefits of being a movie fan and a graphic artist, is that I love to collect posters. Ok, so most of them are digital as I just don’t have the space for a movie poster collection (and Serena would analyze them for me) and many of these are in my personal favourites gallery.
This was some creative stuff that was revolutionary and his work clearly has inspired other posters long after his work.
I just got to know him and he is already gone. He will be immortal in his work.
Wow, you weren’t joking: he was a busy man. Some great work
One of his posters is on my dorm wall. I’ll look at my Beauty and the Beast poster a little bit longer today.