Interview with Akiko Stehrenberger

Katherine Hamilton: Regarding the ubiquity of your designs, you’ve mentioned how the film studios changed their attitudes towards more minimal, artistic, hand-drawn or -painted posters after the success of your 2007 Funny Games design, which featured a grainy, photorealistic digital illustration of a distressed Naomi Watts. 

Were there other poster designers that helped usher in this new era of film posters, away from the “Photoshop explosion”?

Or do you think the Funny Games image was a catalyst for this moment?

Akiko Stehrenberger: I’m not sure if Funny Games was a catalyst for this moment, but it definitely helped open the door for more thoughtful work to come through. The work was always there, it was the clients who needed to be comfortable with it. I didn't find what I did necessarily groundbreaking. The designers I worked alongside at the first movie poster agency all did amazing work that rarely saw the light of day because of the clients. I was just lucky my piece made it to become a real poster. Back then, it felt like only indie movie posters were pushing boundaries, even though illustration was still quite a hard sell.

For a while, every client associated illustration to “small” films. But I remember Sideways becoming a monumental poster because the film was also a huge success. And when the sumi ink black and white banner posters for Wolverine came out, my head exploded! I couldn’t believe Japanese brush art was used for a huge Marvel film. This got me so excited and let me believe illustration was worth fighting for.

Katherine Hamilton: I wanted to reflect a bit on your influence on a new generation of poster designers and artists. Regarding the impact of your Funny Games poster, you said something like “I don’t own the image of a woman crying.” But you must see some posters and wonder if the artists had seen your works. Do you think it’s still an anomaly to work in the way you do? That the trace of the hand still feels fresh in the industry?

Akiko Stehrenberger: I think we all see everyone’s work and are influenced by eachother. We all have to work within confines based on the assets provided and client direction. Sometimes as designers our hands are absolutely tied and a client wants what they know was successful before.

I’m sure any designer making a crying face poster is going to know that someone will connect it to Funny Games, even almost 20 years after. My It Follows got connected to Driving Miss Daisy from 1989. Anyone from the outside can look at movie poster design and easily critique it. But from the inside, we have so many challenges the audience isn't aware of and usually have to present an endless amount of ideas...so there is a good chance for overlap. 

For a consistently working designer (and audience) to expect brand new ideas for thousands of projects, is completely unrealistic and absolutely impossible. The way I see it is that everything has been done before, what makes it special is how it’s done. I never saw myself as an anomaly. I think working full time as a junior designer at an agency, let me know right away that I had to be versatile and that some illustration styles communicate certain genres better than others.

I do strongly believe that illustration or the trace of the hand should come with intention, however. It should serve a purpose rather than just being an illustration for illustration sake. It is an absolute pet peeve of mine when a client asks me to do a photo realistic painting of a cast ensemble almost word for word of the photography. If there is no concept behind using illustration, I think it’s a missed opportunity. It’s like repainting your house a color that's only slightly different from the previous. If it doesn't add anything to it, why do it at all?

Katherine Hamilton: Speaking of influences, I know the photorealist painter Chuck Close is a big influence on your work. I see these parallels not only in an appreciation of photorealistic style, but in a commitment to rendering painstaking details.

I’m wondering why you have such a stubborn commitment to such a laborious process. When you could use Photoshop to achieve the same effects, or you could computer generate certain elements, why do you continue to take the time?

Akiko Stehrenberger: Yes Chuck Close is one of many influences on me, but I like finding an illustration style that best suits my concept for each project. I'm less inclined to do hyperrealistic art unless a client is nervous that a more expressive style can hurt the chances of an illustration being used.

Regardless, devoting so much time to details is still very important to me in any illustration style and it’s like meditation for me. I know I can make my life easier by using certain programs, but I also don’t want to get rusty on the traditional skills since I use them for my personal art. I'm not a ludite by any means, but I can always tell when other movie art has taken shortcuts to try to fake illustrations.

Without calling it out directly, a certain popular poster last year, ran a photoshop filter on special shoot photography and added an outline around the figures to try to pass off as an illustration. I'm not saying we don't all cheat a little, but hide your tracks a little better LOL.

Katherine Hamilton: You’ve also mentioned several times that you have a love for Polish film posters. What is it about the Polish design sensibility or aesthetic you’re drawn to? Where does that influence show up in your own work? 

Akiko Stehrenberger: I just love how weird, imaginative and sometimes crude looking they are. It’s anti slick Hollywood marketing. I like being influenced by this when I do more metaphoric/iconographic work and especially when I use optical illusions as a concept. A lot of my concepts work better when they're not photo real.

Katherine Hamilton: Your retrospective book Akikomatic: The Work of Akiko Stehrenberger really showcases the breadth of your abilities: from the very painterly posters for I’m Thinking of Ending Things to the high gloss realism of After the Storm to the loose, expressive simplicity of your work for Jordan Peele’s horror films or The Batman. 

What part of your artistic voice do you feel unites all these works? 

Akiko Stehrenberger: My versatility is the reason why I consistently get hired on projects of all genres. Because I can adapt to each genre, I'm hoping my artistic voice connecting all these works, is the strong presence of a concept. I can't work without one. It's the soul of all my work even if the concept isn't immediately obvious to the viewer.

Katherine Hamilton: You’re also returning to making artwork for yourself. Has that been a mental shift for you—going from telling somebody else’s story to telling your own? Or has the vulnerability of the artwork—that it comes from within yourself—always been present in your work? 

Akiko Stehrenberger: I’ve always made artwork for myself and my friends. It’s only recently that I’ve grown the confidence to show it more. There is definitely more vulnerability and insecurity in showing my own work because I don't have the built in audience a film or the film's actor may bring along. I've always managed to carve out time to make work for myself, which seems impossible in the extremely demanding hours of movie poster making. It's so important to me that I have an outlet. It also continues to make me grow as an artist both inside and out of the industry. 

Katherine Hamilton: Do you ever think you’ll stop doing film posters? You had a gallery exhibition last year in Los Angeles, do you hope to do more gallery exhibitions in the future and are there any other artistic avenues you want to pursue or explore? 

Akiko Stehrenberger: I hope I stop before someone forces me to. I know very well I won’t stay relevant forever, or even care to be at some point. I feel extremely lucky to be in my position, don’t get me wrong, but I’m constantly wondering what’s next for me. Who knows exactly what that is, but the versatility I've learned from being in this industry, has led me to believe that it doesn't have to just stop here.