Matt Needle is a UK-based illustrator and graphic designer specializing in editorial illustrations and film posters. Not only has he produced work for clients like Disney, Marvel, Wired, GQ, and CNN, but he’s endeavored on an epic quest to design a poster for every single James Bond film.
Most recently, however, Matt has created a poster series of the Best Picture nominations for the 2021 Academy Awards.
The posters feature films including The Sound of Metal, The Trial of the Chicago 7, The Father, Minari, and a handful of others. Embarrassingly, I have to admit that I’ve only seen one of the nominations, The Trial of The Chicago 7, but the representation of this film through the eyes of Matt Needle via the poster design is phenomenal. I don’t want to give any spoilers away, but it accurately encapsulates the film’s aura through an illustrative design.
While I haven’t seen the other nominated films, the design of the posters all exude drama, grit, character, and passion, and they each clearly showcase themes of the movies. The typography is rich with emotion., for example, The Sound of Metal’s typography almost allows me to hear the type itself. It’s truly captivating.
Also, if you haven’t seen any of the films, go easy on yourself. We’ve all had a rough year.
Despite all the posters getting designed by a single person, they each are characteristically distinctive and astonishingly unique. I assume the research for creating these posters took a Herculean effort of movie watching and, I’m sure, popcorn eating, but the hard work was well worth these alluring designs.
