51 Inspirational Vintage Movie Posters

Inspiration   November 23, 2009  by

In the pre-Photoshop days, designers used classic designs and hand drawn art to make some of the best movie posters of all time. Image editing software helps a lot with the creative process now; but today’s digital artists can still learn a good deal from studying vintage poster designs that worked, and still do.

Inspired with that idea, I’ve collected some of my favorite vintage movie poster designs. I hope they also inspire you with new (and old) ways to capture the essence of design in your own work.

Kickin’ Old School with Vintage Movie Poster Designs

Designing a movie poster? Check out UPrinting.com for full color poster printing!

 

Cadence is You The Designer's senior blogger, and the most jack-of-all-trades of the staff. She's always trying out something different every day, some of which fuels her posts here on the blog. Let her know if you want us to post more about your favorite topic - she might know more than a thing or two about it!

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44 Responses
  1. Cat Johnson   -   November 23, 2009 at 9:37 pm

    Thanks for the inspiration. I especially love the minimal Jimi Hendrix poster with the simple yet spot-on typography. There are so many great styles here – lots of eye candy and design ideas.

    Great post.

  2. Arvin   -   November 23, 2009 at 11:28 pm

    Wow, there are some cool obscure movies on there that actually make me wanna look those movies up now! Great job!

  3. Callum Chapman   -   November 23, 2009 at 11:48 pm

    Excellent post! I love vintage movie posters ;D

  4. Parth   -   November 24, 2009 at 1:11 am

    Superb Collection. Really great.

  5. elisa   -   November 24, 2009 at 1:53 pm

    all of these are great! some are dated, I’ll always love the A Clockwork Orange poster.

  6. [...] Here is the original post: 51 Inspirational Vintage Movie Posters [...]

  7. Jason Aiken   -   November 25, 2009 at 3:53 pm

    Really Cool!

    Thanks,
    Jason

  8. jayesh   -   November 26, 2009 at 1:46 am

    Really great post. There are so many great styles here a lots of eye candy and design ideas.

  9. w3planting   -   November 26, 2009 at 2:28 am

    nice collection, thanks for sharing

  10. Joe Magnetic   -   November 26, 2009 at 6:44 am

    So many great movie posters, makes you want to watch the films. Really like the “a many splendored thing” poster.

    Thanks for sharing.

  11. Anna Green, Web Design   -   November 26, 2009 at 10:48 pm

    I don’t even now where to start, some of these posters make me feel almost sick, I think im going to have to start collection movie posters! I juts need a house to put them in and im laughing. Great collection!

  12. Oliver Web Design   -   November 27, 2009 at 3:38 am

    Some really great vintage movie posters here. Haven’t heard of a few so I’m going to have to look them up because they look interesting. Thanks for posting these.

  13. [...] 51 Inspirational Vintage Movie Posters [...]

  14. Waheed Akhtar   -   November 27, 2009 at 10:29 pm

    amazing! thank a ton

  15. cintia   -   November 28, 2009 at 6:16 am

    Metropolis is the best! As perfect as the movie, always present. Thanks for sharing.

  16. Autonomy   -   November 29, 2009 at 7:22 am

    Great collection. Thanks for compiling such a fun list of classics to enjoy.

  17. [...] Read the original article [...]

  18. favSHARE   -   November 29, 2009 at 2:39 pm

    This article has been shared on favSHARE.net. Go and vote it!

  19. Waheed Akhtar   -   November 29, 2009 at 8:49 pm

    nice collection

  20. Igor Lukyanov   -   November 30, 2009 at 12:01 am

    Oh, how I love those vintage things! Great collection! Really cool!

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  22. [...] in Uncategorized by matt on December 3, 2009 An awesome selection of pre-digital film posters here. Logan's [...]

  23. Lucinda - eightyone design   -   December 3, 2009 at 6:33 am

    Love The Birds poster, so simple yet so striking!

  24. Rosti The Snowman   -   December 3, 2009 at 11:28 pm

    I Love them all! Really like the Logan’s Run one!

  25. [...] 51 Inspirational Vintage Movie Posters [...]

  26. Azterik Media   -   December 4, 2009 at 5:10 am

    Great post! I currently own the Logan’s Run and A Clockwork Orange posters. Did you find all of these images at one website in particular? Thanks for taking the time to put all these works of art together for us!

    Cheers,
    Cheryl
    Azterik Media

  27. Chris M   -   December 4, 2009 at 8:28 am

    What about this, my all time favourite:

    http://celluloidhope.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/rosemarys_baby.jpg

    Also, Kubrick’s films had some beautiful posters.

  28. Chris M   -   December 4, 2009 at 8:30 am
  29. [...] A nice col­lec­tion of rad vin­tage movie posters. [...]

  30. Luke Sheppard   -   December 4, 2009 at 3:59 pm

    I can’t believe this!! I am literally RIGHT in the middle of a post on vintage movie posters!! Grrrrrrr. Now it’s going to look like I stole your idea. Haha. Oh well…

  31. halftime   -   December 5, 2009 at 10:44 am

    amazing love these

  32. designfollow   -   December 6, 2009 at 1:21 pm

    great collection, thank you.

  33. [...] Note: This article is from youthedesigner.com VN:F [1.7.7_1013]please wait…Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast) Categories : Design [...]

  34. [...] Here are some pretty cool vintage movie posters courtesy of You The Designer. [...]

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  36. katie   -   December 8, 2009 at 11:23 pm

    I love them all. The godzilla one has got to be my favorite, they both look like they are dancing on the buildings. I wonder whether the designers of these would appreciate the digital design age we are in now or think that traditional methods offer more character

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  38. AC   -   December 14, 2009 at 9:35 am

    Great compilation of amazing work. Thanks for sharing.

  39. Derek Kimball | DesignBuddy.com   -   December 20, 2009 at 12:21 pm

    It’s great seeing design from different eras. The typography as well. Thanks for the post.

  40. Tori   -   January 4, 2010 at 5:21 am

    Great collection. I was really happy to see Metropolis on here. What a great flick.

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  42. Stephan Czepanik   -   January 8, 2010 at 5:47 pm

    wow these are really good, I love the star wars one but maybe its because I just love anything science f.

  43. [...] 51 Inspirational Vintage Movie Posters [...]