Over 200 portfolios were submitted to be considered for the End of Year Portfolio reviews and after looking over hundreds of pieces of work, we finally decided on our top 10. With the help of judges Bartosz Kosowski, Grzegorz Domaradzki, Karl Fitzgerald, Chris Thornley, Joshua Budich and Michelle Gardiner 10 artists were selected from the PosterSpy community. The overall winner will receive over $2000 in special awards, including a Wacom Cintiq 13 Pro, a ViewSonic VP2768-4K Professional Monitor and a plugin pack from Astute Graphics. All 10 artists will receive a critique document from the judges, who have given advice and tips for improving their work.
This year we also held a special 2 day event at The Old Street Gallery in London to showcase the top 10 artists.
How artists were chosen
We created a strict criteria that each individual portfolio was judged on, including the use of composition, colour, typography and other important elements in poster design. Once each profile was judged, we tallied all the scores. The artists with the most votes made the top 10.
This year we held an exhibition at The Old Street Gallery in London on April 5th and 6th. On the Friday at 6pm we opened our doors, guests were allowed to feast on the incredible pizza from our friends at Voodoo Ray’s Shoreditch and sip on some beers from the south London brewery Brockley Brewery, we heard the Golden Ale was a hit with the guests.
At 7pm PosterSpy founder and event host Jack Woodhams held a live Q&A with 2018 portfolio winner Eileen Steinbach and afterwards guests continued to mingle, network and enjoy the art on show.
On Saturday, the venue held two special industry talks from artists Doaly and Dan Mumford. Both of which ended up needing a few extra seats to be pulled out from storage… it’s safe to say we underestimated the turnout for both days. It was brilliant to see so much support for the poster community.
We want to say a big thank you to our main event sponsors ViewSonic Europe and Experience12, ViewSonic not only helped the event to happen but also supplied us with some of their great tech to make sure things went smoothly. We had 2018’s honourable mentions on display on the ViewSonic VP3268 4K professional monitor and our industry talks were displayed using ViewSonic’s LS380 laser projector. Both of which were perfect, so thank you to ViewSonic!
The event wouldn’t have been possible without Experience12 who worked closely with us to ensure that the event was a great success, helping us every step of the way.
Grzegorz Domaradzki, aka ”Gabz” (born 1979). Graphic designer, creator of posters and illustrations, art and cinema enthusiast. Graduate from the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan, where he lives and creates. Apart from illustrations (both press and portrait), Gabz has been creating alternative posters for various blockbusters of world cinematography. His screen prints decorate the houses of collectors all over the world, and his work has gained a large group of dedicated fans.
Bartosz Kosowski
Bartosz Kosowski is a poster artist based in Lodz, Poland. Bartosz was educated at Strzeminski Academy of Fine Arts and Design. Dealing mostly with posters, portraits and editorial illustrations, he has been lucky enough to create award winning posters for numerous films and has cooperated with such clients as Legendary Pictures, Apple, Canal +, Orange, ING, “The New Yorker”, “The Economist” “The New Republic”, “The Hollywood Reporter”, “Smithsonian”, “Chicago Magazine”, “Politico” and “Newsweek”.
Joshua Budich
Joshua Budich is an independent illustrator working for numerous galleries, including Gallery 1988, Spoke Art and Hero Complex Gallery, movie studios, and media outlets around the globe. Inspired by a love for the pop culture of his youth, his primary focus is on screenprints that celebrate popular movies (Star Wars, Star Trek, The Big Lebowski), television series (LOST, MARVEL’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), animated shows (The Simpsons, My Neighbor Totoro, AKIRA) and more.
Karl Fitzgerald
Karl Fitzgerald is an illustrator living and working in London. He specialises in screen printed alternative movie posters and book covers with a focus on characters and their relationship to their environment. Karl uses a mixture of digital and traditional processes to create a heavily textured, atmospheric painting of a key scene from the narrative. Clients include Lucasfilm, Legendary, Warner Bros., SXSW, Vice Press and more.
Raid71
Chris Thornley aka Raid 71 is a commercial artist based in Scotland, United Kingdom. Raid71 specialises in screen printed posters and creates both commercial and private commission work on a regular basis. Select clients include Hasbro, X-Games, Mercedes, Marve, Popular Mechanics, Lego, X-Box, Nikon and many more.
Michelle Gardiner
Michelle is the Executive Vice President of Creative Partnership, with over 20 years of experience in the creative industry Michelle has worked on some of the biggest properties of our time. Established in 1979, Creative Partnership has an unrivalled legacy in international film marketing
We’re delighted to have such a talent packed judging panel. Our judges have years of experience in their craft and have all worked on some incredible projects for some of the world’s biggest brands and properties. The chance to receive portfolio critique from these artists is a great opportunity to have your work seen and commented on by some of today’s finest working artists and figureheads in the movie poster and pop culture community.
The Awards
We’re delighted to be able to award the top 3 portfolios with the below prizes to help them progress in their careers.
We’re offering over £2500 worth of prizes thanks to our sponsors Wacom, ViewSonic and Astute Graphics.
