Today is a great day for the fine folks at Mondo. The company has just sent out a press release announcing that the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences' Margaret Herrick Library will archive Mondo's growing collection of original film posters. One of the first Mondo posters to go into the archive will be Drew Struzan's gorgeous poster for Frankenstein, which is part of Mondo's Universal Monsters series. In Struzan's long career of designing posters, this is his first screenprint.
The Mondo posters will be housed in Herrick's existing collection of more than 38,000 posters, stored in climate-controlled vaults, and scanned into the library's online catalog. Speaking of finding the Mondo posters online, the company has now started up mondoarchive.com where you can check out all of the posters released thus far. The only way the site could be better is if they told you how fast the poster sold out. Hit the jump to check out the press release along with the Struzan Frankenstein poster. Details on the sale date, price and edition size will be revealed soon so be sure you're following @MondoNews for the announcement.
Click over to /Film to find out how Mondo brought Struzan out of retirement for the Frankenstein piece:
Here's the press release:
ACADEMY LIBRARY AND ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE
TO ARCHIVE ART MOVIE POSTERS FROM MONDO
Beverly Hills, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Margaret Herrick Library is partnering with the Austin-based Alamo Drafthouse theater chain to archive the company’s growing collection of original film posters designed by contemporary graphic artists. The first group of the Alamo Drafthouse’s Mondo posters arriving at the Herrick will include the latest print, a poster for the classic horror film “Frankenstein” (1931), created by Drew Struzan.
The Alamo Drafthouse began producing limited-edition silkscreen posters in 2003. Mondo, the company’s art boutique, now produces more than 120 posters annually, and through it prominent artists such as Martin Ansin, Shepard Fairey, Olly Moss, Tyler Stout and Ken Taylor are commissioned to create new art for classic films, as well as alternative posters for contemporary movies such as “Inglourious Basterds,” “True Grit” and “Thor.”
“We are always seeking out the unusual, and the Mondo collection certainly fits the bill,” said the Academy’s graphic arts librarian, Anne Coco. “We are looking forward to working with the Alamo Drafthouse to ensure that its contribution to the art of movie posters will be around for future generations to appreciate.”
This ongoing gift from the Alamo Drafthouse will be housed along with the Herrick’s existing collection of more than 38,000 movie posters. The posters in the library’s collection are stored in climate-controlled vaults, and are scanned and entered into the library’s online catalog, where they can be viewed by the public.
“We're extremely grateful to the Academy for its interest in archiving Mondo's poster collection,” said Mondo Creative Director Justin Ishmael. “We're fans of movie art, first and foremost, and to have our artists' work archived alongside some of the classics of movie poster art is an incredible honor."
The Margaret Herrick Library poster collection includes a wide range of works created by noted graphic artists, such as the Stenberg brothers’ constructivist poster for “Man with a Movie Camera” and Wiktor Gorka’s arresting poster for the Polish release of “Cabaret.” The library also holds all of the film posters designed by Saul Bass, including his groundbreaking key art for “The Man with the Golden Arm.”
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The Margaret Herrick Library, located in Beverly Hills, is the world’s preeminent cinema research facility. Holdings include more than 10 million photographs, 300,000 clipping files, 80,000 screenplays, 35,000 movie posters and 32,000 books. Devoted to the history and development of the motion picture both as an art form and as an industry, the holdings also include more than 1,000 special collections representing a wide range of giants and legends of moviemaking. The Herrick is open to the public four days a week; it is a non-circulating research facility housed in what was once a water treatment facility in Beverly Hills.
ABOUT THE ACADEMY
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is the world’s preeminent movie-related organization, with a membership of more than 6,000 of the most accomplished men and women working in cinema. In addition to the annual Academy Awards—in which the members vote to select the nominees and winners —the Academy presents a diverse year-round slate of public programs, exhibitions and events; provides financial support to a wide range of other movie-related organizations and endeavors; acts as a neutral advocate in the advancement of motion picture technology; and, through its Margaret Herrick Library and Academy Film Archive, collects, preserves, restores and provides access to movies and items related to their history. Through these and other activities the Academy serves students, historians, the entertainment industry and people everywhere who love movies.