Today’s subject of our PosterSpy PRO interview series is Scott Saslow, an LA-based freelance graphic designer.
Hi, Scott! Could you tell us about your design background?
Growing up, I was always into movies and ended up going to film school. That ship sailed and I spent much of my 20s in a series of go-nowhere temp jobs. As I was about to turn 30, I realized I couldn’t be a file clerk forever and went back to school. I had to take all the prerequisites and pass a portfolio review. I knew I was on the right track when, early on, one of my teachers asked me to step outside. Naturally I thought I was in trouble — but once outside, she asked me, “Have you done this before?” Three years later, I graduated magna cum laude from Florida Atlantic University with my B.F.A in graphic design.
How did you get into the art of posters?
Funny enough, it wasn’t my intention, though in retrospect, it seems inevitable. Only in my last semester of school, when I had to create my own projects for our senior exhibition, did I realize I could combine my two interests: film and graphic design. I created two Blu-Ray releases (came up with my own boutique label, created covers and booklets, etc.) and designed an alternative film poster, an Armin Hofmann-style piece for Black Swan. A few weeks after I graduated, I got a job at a local design agency… and quit six months later because I was miserable. I went back to the retail job I had while in school and that’s when I read about Pete Majarich, an Australian designer who was designing one minimalist movie poster a day for a year. I thought to myself, “I think I can do that.” So I did: 365 posters in 365 days. Now to be fair, only about 1⁄6 of them are any good, but that’s still 60 or so posters I now had under my belt. (Kevin Smith re-tweeting my Dogma poster remains a highlight.)
I moved back to Los Angeles (I had lived there for a year and a half after film school as the world’s worst PA) and got a 3-month internship at BLT, one of the big entertainment ad agencies, right there on Sunset Boulevard. In the interview, I was told it was the daily poster project that got me in the door and not my student work. I must admit the internship knocked the wind out of my sails a bit (after all, you don’t know what you don’t know) but the people were nice and super-talented and I learned a lot. I’m grateful for the experience. The internship ended and I’ve been freelancing ever since.
A lot of your posters are centered around visual metaphors. How do you come up with those ideas?
Sometimes while watching a movie, I’ll have a “Eureka!” moment. I suppose my style, if I have one, is really defined by my limitations. But I love the challenge of encapsulating a narrative in one image. Less is indeed more. And a lot of this comes from learning about other designers, from Sam Smith and Brandon Schaefer, who started their much-missed Poster Boys podcast around the time I graduated, to the eternal Saul Bass, whose work I’ve paid homage to on several occasions. Some ideas just come to me while others take a while to percolate. And of course, not every film lends itself to a metaphorical solution. Sometimes a dramatic close-up of an actor works just as well.
Is there a metaphor you’re particularly proud of?
The first one that comes to mind is Capricorn One, a 1978 thriller written and directed by Peter Hyams about a fake mission to Mars. I won’t get too specific about the plot but it’s basically a take on the moon landing conspiracies, so how best to depict that. After thinking of a few ideas, some of which had been done elsewhere, I realized, “Oh… just take a real photo of Mars and add a boom shadow… done!”
In terms of actual creation, what does your process typically look like?
Sometimes I’ll be watching a movie and there’ll be a nice shot and I think, “There it is, that’s the poster!” Others are much more difficult, especially the Oscar nominees where sometimes all I have to go on is a trailer. And if one of those nominees is a big blockbuster like Dune… oh boy.
If I’m doing a poster that’s a parody of an existing poster, it’s usually because I didn’t have any ideas… and when in doubt, I often go Swiss-style. However, I have gotten more comfortable doing big ensemble-style pieces, even though it’s not really my forte. I have typefaces that I like, and an external drive full of textures and assorted bits and pieces.
For title treatments, I often don’t know which typeface I’ll use when I start but as I play around, I immediately know which ones don’t work.
What are some of the favorite posters you’ve done?
As far as my original dailies, Dogma is definitely up there, especially since it was the first alt poster of mine to really get any kind of attention. Spies Like Us makes me smile, as it’s all text and inspired by a silly scene in the film. There Will Be Blood, Dead Ringers (I love using archival illustrations), Star Trek II done in the style of the Constructivists.
For posters I’ve done since then, Us (which got a huge reaction), Tenet (ditto), Parasite, Marriage Story… I love how they all turned out. And I think with the exception of Marriage Story, I had no clue what the end result would be when I started.
How long have you been with PosterSpy? What has your experience been like?
I think it’s been eight years… wow, where does the time go? It’s nice being part of a community. A few years after I graduated, I returned to FAU to speak to the design students who were about to graduate and I told them that if they share their work online, eventually they will find their people, whether you’re into posters or fonts or album covers or whatever. I’m lucky I found mine.
There’s a Hong Kong action film, Running Out of Time, that was released on Blu-Ray (along with its sequel) in the UK by Eureka and a PosterSpy member, Gokaiju, did the artwork. Meanwhile, Arrow Video released it in the US and I worked on the layouts and booklet and another PosterSpy member, Lucas Peverill, did the artwork. So between both releases, something like 75% of all the design work was done by PosterSpy people. Pretty cool!
In 2021, you worked on the design and layouts of PosterSpy’s art compendium, The Art of Movie Posters. Can you talk a little about that job?
It was a lot of work… I’m thankful Jack brought me aboard. We did have minor disagreements about certain formatting things, but nothing too crazy.
I was impressed by the quality and quantity of artwork (and I’m pretty sure much of it was for Joker and Midsommar!). Finessing all the text took a while, since some designers are better writers than others. Same for setting the overall grids, but the beauty of that is you (hopefully!) only have to do it once, then everything should fit right in.
Finally, what is your ideal poster gig?
I’d love to design for Janus Films, Park Circus, A24, and Neon. And I haven’t done any gig posters but if Pink Martini needs a concert poster, I’m in!
Social media:
Instagram: @scottsaslow
Twitter: @Saslow_Scott
Website: scottsaslow.com
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