The world famous Alamo Drafthouse hired me to create this poster for the 2013 film festival known as Butt-Numb-A-Thon (also known as BNAT) an annual film marathon held every December since 1999 in Austin, Texas. Hosted by Harry Knowles of the Ain't It Cool News website in celebration of his birthday. This mini-festival shows 24 hours of vintage films as well as premieres.
Alamo Drafthouse gave me only two rules that I had to follow:
1. It had to have Harry's face on it.
2. The poster must have 15 lollipops on it.
After a day of sketching and trying to wrap my brain around these two small but somehow largely complicated rules, I came up with the "Mount Harry and His Candy Flavored Waterfall" concept. Working on a tight deadline, I had no choice other than to take the risk that the client wouldn't see this project as the lovable host of the festival was throwing up all over the event, but as celebration of his larger than life personalty. This time the risk paid off as they loved it and handed out the 24" x 36" posters out to everyone who attended the film festival.
Carving Harry Knowles out of the side of a mountain was a pretty interesting challenge but a great way to hopefully not make his likeness feel too forced into the composition of the poster.
By placing all of the copy on the sides of work trucks, this too would hopefully keep the poster communicating, but not compromise the design of the poster. The prints we're always designed to be a giveaway gift to festival attendees. Making design hierarchy to always think of the print as wall art first and as advertising second.
This shot I am particularly proud of because I love the interaction of making the viewer look beyond the tree tops to see the truck crossing the land bridge. I was also happy with the movement of the water around the rocks and how the candy lined the banks. I had always envisioned deer sipping from the stream, but due to a tight timeline this vision stayed on my checklist and off the project.
The Alamo Drafthouse truck was my favorite little detail. As a kid my dad drove a beer distribution truck, which I thought was the coolest thing in the world, I had a collection of Pepsi and Coca-Cola delivery trucks lining the shelves of my childhood room to prove it. Whenever I can work personal details into my work, without making it seem too obvious, it always makes me very happy.
