It's been a really impressive few months for
New Flesh in my estimation. The Austin-based design studio, screen printing house and organizer of guerrilla movie screenings, has already built up an exceptional body of work and and is showing no signs of slowing down. Working in collaboration with the
Blue Starlite Drive-in, New Flesh has created two beautiful posters in tribute to Alfred Hitchcock's
The Birds and
Rear Window.
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The Birds Movie Poster - N.E.
18" x 24" - Signed and Numbered
$25 - Limited to 50 |
I've loved everything New Flesh has released so far, but I think it's safe to say that they've reached new heights with the double feature Hitchcock prints. N.E.'s
Birds poster features detail aplenty with its intricately shaped Bodega Bay topography, comprised of what looks to be some pretty intense cross hatching and shadowing. But as is usually the case, it's the little things that really tend to drive me wild (in a good way, of course) when it comes to movie artwork. I'm talking about the bird-lined power lines. I didn't immediately catch it when I first saw the poster, partially because it's so minute and there's so many other things to look at, but the fact that it's there totally ups my appreciation of this wonderful print. This is also something I'll be repeating later in the post, but I love the color palette N.E. decided on - it really captures that by-the-bay backdrop.
Artist N.E. from New Flesh was nice enough to provide some insight on what he was trying to accomplish with his
Birds design:
"I wanted to do something that I had not seen before for either one of the movies. I knew I wanted to make something for The Birds that recalled the travel posters from the 50's and 60's. I like the idea of having the birds be a subtle element of the poster that surfaces when you look closely at the image."
The Birds poster will be
available through the
New Flesh store on Monday (1/16) at 10:30 AM CST. The
poster measures 18" x 24", is limited to an edition of 50 and will cost $25. To learn more about New Flesh and artist N.E., be sure to follow them
@newfleshprints, visit their
website, and check out their
store.
 |
Rear Window Movie Poster - N.E.
18" x 24" - Signed and Numbered
$25 - Limited to 50 |
Out of the two Hitchcock prints, I think this may be my favorite. N.E.'s poster marks a pretty thrilling scene in
Rear Window when the wheelchair-bound Jeff (James Stewart) uses a camera's flash to temporary blind the home-invading Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr). And in my opinion, this heart-pounding moment comes through spectacularly unscathed due to the artist's use of feverish color and a more stark, but dynamic, design - both elements running somewhat contrary to what was done with
The Birds print. The success of N.E.'s color choice is two-fold, really: not only do they reflect what someone might see in the aftermath of a bulb's flash, but they're also spot on with what are widely considered Hitchcock's "warning colors" - yellow, orange and red. I'm really excited to see New Flesh consistently raise the stakes and will definitely be making a poster purchase come Monday (1/16).
Artist N.E. from New Flesh on his
Rear Window poster design, and some
Star Wars related trivia I had absolutely zero knowledge of:
"For Rear Window the options are always slightly limited, just because it's about a man in his room confined to a wheelchair with a telephoto lens. I love how Hitchcock uses effects to simulate point of view. In Vertigo it was the push / pull camera trick. In Rear Window it was the blinding light that was simulated when Raymond Burr confronts James Stewart. That image has been "burned" in my head (pun intended) since I first saw the film. The red / orange / yellow color scheme came from this camera flash. (Side note: the camera flash that James Stewart used in Rear Window was the main part they used for making the hilts for lightsabers in Star Wars. So technically James Stewart uses a lightsaber to defend himself in the movie. Or you could say Darth Vader uses a camera flash in Star Wars.)"
N.E. on the poster set as a whole:
"For the Hitchcock posters it was important that they were similar enough that they could be in a set and potentially a series. I also wanted the technique and the color to be completely different or opposite from the each other. This is where the blue green / dark blue / blue for The Birds came from. Both posters are very impressionistic compared to most of my other posters. The goal was to convey mood or a feeling more then just illustrate an image from the movie."
Much like
The Birds print, N.E.'s
Rear Window poster will be
available through the
New Flesh store on Monday at 10:30 AM CST. The
print measures 18" x 24", will cost $25 and is limited to an edition of 50. To learn more about New Flesh, be sure to follow them on Twitter
@newfleshprints, visit their
website, and check out their
store.
