An Interview with Krzysztof Domaradzki
KRZYSZTOF DOMARADZKI is one of the best Alternative Movie Poster illustrators working in the industry today. He graduated with a Master’s degree in drawing and etching from the Academy of Fine Arts in Poland. After school, he began working in an advertising agency where he collaborated with brands such as Volkswagen and Audi, building his skills as a graphic designer while incorporating traditional ink and pen methods, and pairing them with the newest computer technology. However, working in the agency world wasn’t appealing to him, deciding to branch out and start his own design studio, StudioKxx, where he has created illustrations for Nike, HBO, Pepsi, and posters for memorable films such as The Shining (1980), Rocky (1976), Predator (1987), and Blade Runner (1982). We caught up with Krzystof to discuss one of his own favourite filmmakers, Christopher Nolan, and what he has done to honour his work.
Over the course of your career, you have pivoted from a variety of different styles to where you are now. First drawing and metal techniques, storyboards and illustrations for an agency model, and finally website design and more specifically design and illustration. Was this a natural progression or were you always more interested in design?
I’ve always enjoyed drawing. Whenever I wasn’t playing soccer, I was drawing with my brother. I simply love it, no matter the technique. But just like anything in life, when you gain experience and know a thing or two about what you’re doing, the more you look for different things you can try. At the beginning of my career, back when I was doing metal techniques, paintings and sculptures, I knew nothing about computers. Once I graduated, I got a job at an advertising agency by simply showing my large-scale pencil drawings and paintings. They decided to trust my skills and teach me how to use computer programs in order to pursue a career as a graphic designer and illustrator. During my first and only year at the agency, I quickly adapted to using Photoshop and other programs. Back then, we were using Macromedia Flash, a vector program that some may not remember. There was no Illustrator at that point, but I also learned that one quickly and started using it in my illustrations. I was adding some typography elements, some patterns, all the things that are easy to do on a computer but very hard when done by hand. I’ve always tried to have this base made with my hand so to speak, which is drawing either with pencil or a pen, or a combination of the two.
For design and illustration, have you found that your style has changed when you first approach a project versus when you first started designing?
This style, just like me, evolved over time. Going back 10 or 15 years ago, I had a different approach. I always used drawing as a base, but the more I acquired computer skills, the more typography I was adding and the more depth I was looking for. At that time, I was doing a lot of sports illustrations and even found a few people commenting that “Krzysztof Domaradzki [only does] sports illustrations,” which I hated. I don’t like to be put in one box where you supposedly have one thing that you are good at and nothing else. So, I decided to stop. I simply stopped accepting any more sports illustrations, and by that time I was very much into cinema. I had done a few posters in the past and I decided that maybe this was for me, because I always loved cinema. I love posters, and I believe posters are a great combination of drawing and other aspects of craftsmanship, like layout, typography, and everything connected with it.
Have you found that your style has changed when you first approached a poster versus when you start now on a particular project?
A lot of posters I have drawn, like Blade Runner (1982) for example – which is still very close to my heart – are done in a completely different manner using only an ink pen, and with a limited amount of colors so it’s not as detailed. Pretty much all my older posters are very graphic. The drawing is prominent while the colors are not really. I have a friend who helps me with separations, so I can use any style I want. Now I use pencils or pens with rich colors, but I still find movie titles that I think suit the older style more rather than the new one.
I read that the combination of digital and traditional illustration was your most liked process. Does this combination feel automatic for you, or are there new approaches you want to explore?
I like new things, but it usually takes some time for me to try them. Every few years, I finally get myself to purchase something new that helps with my work. For example, I recently bought an iPad a few months ago and I must say I love it. At the same time, I hope I will not be doing only 100% digital artworks. It was the same story with computers basically, I used them for games initially, and when I studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, I was only doing traditional stuff so to speak; clay, oil paints, everything. Obviously, computers are great tools if you know how to use them. It helps a lot with vectors and typography elements. Right now, I just can’t imagine doing my work without it.
At what point do you feel you are on the right track in the design process? How do you get into that mindset? And when do you know you have to pivot?
Well, it’s a tough call really, it’s a bit like speaking about love. I had this great professor back at the Academy and he always said that you need to talk to a painting. Whether it be a painting or a poster drawing, it’s all the same, you’re creating something from nothing. You have the empty space and you need to do something to break that emptiness. He always said you need to talk to a painting, and the painting will eventually tell you. At some point you just know “this is the way” as the Mandalorian said. For example, back in the day when I was doing Blade Runner, I had quite a few concepts to choose from. I was sending five concepts and saying I like three of the five. I have stopped doing that now. I choose the one that is the best in my opinion and the one I want to work on because that’s really important. If you must spend a month on something, you need to really want to do it.
Which artists’ work do you draw inspiration from and who inspires you today? Do any of their elements of design inspire you on your designs for Alternative Movie Poster Art?
Definitely too many to mention. For painters, there are a lot of them I totally admire. Egon Schiele is a personal God of mine, also Gustav Klimt – Schiele was his student – and Anselm Kiefer. If you don’t know him, check him out. That guy is crazy. I mean, he’s using tar, or some sort of paints like rust, he’s even done an airplane. I mean, crazy guy. Great painter. Right now as far as the poster scene goes, I would say Rory Kurtz and Aaron Horkey - both great artists. Oh! And my brother [Grzegorz Domaradzki] of course! He’s a huge inspiration and a very talented guy. I always laugh when I say very good things about my twin brother because it sounds like I am talking about myself in a way... I can exaggerate and say he’s so talented and whatever I say is going to be a compliment to me [laughs] but he really is brilliant overall.
You have tackled the properties of No Country for Old Men (2007), District 9 (2009), Alien (1979), Heat (1995), Leon: The Professional (1994), The Thing (1982), Rocky, and The Shining, but what was the first property that got you into the world of alternative movie posters?
For those who have followed my career, I’m pretty sure they can spot the similarities between some posters. Since you started with No Country for Old Men, there’s a sad story I can share with you about that particular poster. I obviously loved the film and the Coen Brothers films, and I was very excited to have worked on it! However, I made a poster which everybody hated so much. It was very painful. For the second poster, I listened to what the group wanted me to do. It’s not like I hate it now, I still show it, but I would never choose this particular poster as something I want to do. I don’t want to be known for floating heads. I want to do something different. You need to understand, when you draw eight hours a day for like, say two weeks, you start to hate your life a little bit, just a tiny little bit, but once you see them printed, you’re smiling and ready to do another one. But it needs to be an act of love so to speak.
All of these properties tend to range from a wide range of topics, for example, they are not all science fiction. What draws you to a specific property? Is it a movie you like?
I would say no. The movies I work on are different for the same reason: I use different styles. Whenever I do something with a futuristic timeline, I think “we are really going to go wild on this.” Sci-fi films give me a chance to play around with typography, but obviously I love horror movies too, I love westerns and I love all good cinema. So, whenever someone approaches me and asks if I want to do a particular title, when I like it, or love it, I always try to do it. When I don’t, I tell them “sorry, I don’t really feel that title is for me. Maybe I can give you some other titles.” Most often these people just want me, it’s very flattering. They just want me to work with them on something, and they are willing to accept pretty much whatever I suggest. On my part, I can say that I would not do fairy tales. I’m not interested in children’s movie posters, although there are some great ones out there. And obviously there are great movies for children, like Studio Ghibli for example. One day I could make an exception and do Studio Ghibli, but I prefer to work on films I really love, or ones that have meant a lot to me. When I was a child, for example, I would never name Predator as one of my all-time favorites, but when I was a teenager, it wasn’t easy to get a videocassette in the communist bloc. So, whenever you got Conan the Barbarian (1982) or Star Wars (1977), you’ve seen this film like 22 times. Me and my brothers know Commando (1985) by heart.
When tackling a new property, how do you start the process? Do you want to watch the movie multiple times beforehand? Do you live within that world? Or is it something you watch once and then take the elements you feel are necessary?
Pretty much I work on films I know and love. I always have seen them before, often multiple times, sometimes two or three times, sometimes ten or more. It really depends on the film too. I often had to re-watch them just to remind myself, or get some screen grabs from scenes I was already thinking about potentially using and that’s it. I don’t need to be in this world, as you said, but when I do a concept, whether it’s taking notes or doing compositions on the computer, I often listen to the movie’s soundtrack. When I send someone the concept, which is usually just one concept that is very precise, I tell them “please listen to this track before you look at the file.”
The use of type and images within that type is common in your work, it’s used in Rocky, Leon: The Professional, Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and The Thing. Why is that element important to you?
I often see that this solution has appeared in more promotional material for films recently. For example, the trailer for 1917 (2019) used this solution to incorporate everything inside the numbers. I’ve always loved it. The first time I did it was with Leon, and it might have been an accident. I remember I was working on the title typography, and I thought “these look good,” and if the letters look good, I’m pretty sure everything incorporated inside of them will too, right? I mean, every time I hear, “you can do a poster,” the first thing that comes to mind is “how many letters are there in the title?” If it’s not that many, good. This means I can try this solution. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but I almost always try it out. Everything short should work as a large bold infographic. I generally just love artwork incorporated into irregular shapes.
With any artist or property, it seems that you’ve done the most amount of work for Christopher Nolan, what is it about his work that drove you initially to those properties?
I love a lot of his films, and it just so happens that I’ve done a lot of posters for this particular director. If I could just do posters all the time, I would have done posters for Tarantino or all of Nolan’s films, but it’s just so much work and it always requires a lot of time. When I saw Dunkirk (2017) I was like, “I have to do a poster for this,” even though I prefer his other films Interstellar (2014) and Inception (2010). I’m going to do those two at some point. With Interstellar, I have a concept and the typography ready for that one, but I’m afraid to start that just yet. I haven’t done Inception because my brother did a great version that is hard to top. I need to come up with something eventually. Like I said, Interstellar is ready, and I am very happy about it. I feel it resembles the warping of time idea which I really like. When I first saw Memento (2000) I was like, “who the hell is this guy?” Memento was like a blow in the head. It needs to be real and Nolan gets it. I think it’s great we have people like him in society. People who share deeper and more meaningful things with others, not just the popcorn stuff. When it comes to me, I would always choose more meaningful themes and that is why I prefer Nolan over some other directors.
What is your favorite Nolan movie?
Interstellar would be my favorite. I have a daughter and I guess your perception changes if you have a child, especially a daughter. The scene with her being angry at him and not coming out to say goodbye while the countdown is on... I was crying so much. It’s confusing to read that Nolan is not an emotional director. I don’t agree. There is something cool to him and his movies, which I agree with, but with Interstellar - it breaks my heart every single time!
Your first poster work for him was I believe The Dark Knight trilogy, how did that come about?
I was first approached to do the trilogy as a single poster, and quickly created this pretty obvious composition with Batman in the middle with villains on the left and right, and some city landscape because Gotham is an important character. I’m not exactly sure what the story was with that one, either the group hated it, or maybe it was I did, it doesn’t matter. At some point I was like “fuck it! I think each movie is so good it deserves its own poster.” It was so long ago that it might have been my decision, I can’t remember, but eventually that was the result. I decided that I needed to do all three movies and they needed to look good side by side. In this particular poster, people usually prefer color, but I thought, “no, we are going to do it in black and white.”
It seems that geometric compositions and typography was a major design choice, especially dealing with three posters rather than just one. Is that a process you knew you would use?
You have no idea how many different options and solutions I’ve experimented with. Circles, squares, eights, all those things, and then I came up with geometrical shapes. I started checking those out. Eventually, like with every triptych, you need to think about the centerpiece and then the two sides. Usually in churches, for example, the sides are much thinner while the middle is more prominent. The left and right are there to add emphasis on the middle. That’s the proper triptych approach. I had to do three posters and every poster was the same in terms of compositional balance, so I had to look for some sort of reflection in the left and right poster whereas the middle had to be more centric.
How many layouts did you consider originally?
There are too many to mention. My usual process is that every folder has its own name, and its size ranges around eight to twenty gigabytes, at least. These are all smaller Photoshop PSD files because I’m not working at 300 DPI at the concept stage. I know there will be many versions, so this should give you an idea of how many layouts I usually explore. Once the poster is finished and printed, I only leave the most prominent stages from the design, just to have them on my portable hard drive.
In your other concepts, you incorporated color into your final design, however, this concept goes with a black and white motif, why did you decide to do this?
I started with color, but I always preferred muted colors over very vivid ones. With the Batman trilogy however, once I desaturated it completely, I discovered how great it looks because it creates this nice contrast in places with shadows and everything. And then – and this is the most important part – I drew inspiration from the comic book and graphic novels in general. Batman is also about black and white, good and evil.
The next concept you explored was for the movie Dunkirk, an interesting design choice was to incorporate the idea of time that is reflected in the movie, specifically the use of an hourglass, was that your initial idea?
I started that poster with a horizontal format. I love horizontal formats and I often start with those, but I quickly found that it was not working. So, I divided the composition into three parts representing air, land and sea. Each segment takes a specific amount of time, just like in the film. Land is a week, sea is a day, and air is an hour. Then I incorporated clocks into the design, which are very important since these clocks show an exact time. The way I see it, in times of war or in times of difficulty, there’s usually this moment where you have to make a decision. During war, you can be either a hero or a coward, and it’s all there in Dunkirk. Hans Zimmer’s music is also based on the clock ticking away. The final and last element that I like about my idea is that the whole composition also resembles an hourglass.
Do you find that incorporating elements of the movie, specifically time, is something that is a hindrance to your design? Or does it inspire you to tackle a property?
This movie is all about time. They’re waiting. They’re on this beach ready to be killed or saved. This element was way too prominent for me to ignore and from that point on, I was like, “no, this is it and I just need to make it work.”
We see this figure-eight design again when you did Memento. Did you draw on those previous elements from Dunkirk intentionally?
Actually, I started doing the Memento poster a long time ago, about three or four years ago. I came up with an idea for a single silhouette of Leonard, but that was not the most important element for me at that point of conception, the tattoos were. The tattoos would eventually spoil the movie for everybody who has not seen the film, but my idea was to have them printed in a glow in the dark layer that was readable only as a reflection in the mirror. At one point my brother was approached to do Memento and he said “hey, you already started it, I have a cool idea. Maybe we can do it together,” and he had the exact same idea for the graphic elements so to speak, which was a singular pose of Leonard, holding a gun. He added the idea of his mind disappearing and when I put the tattoos on top, it was perfect.
You mentioned the glow in the dark layer, this incorporated more fonts and typography, all being varying types, what was the design choice behind this?
For this particular poster I tried to use quite a few fonts. I’m not one of those designers who only has one or two great fonts that they use constantly. Whenever I have an opportunity to play around, I do. I’m sure you know that almost every tattoo he had was written using a different font. For example, he had very important information on his hand, but two more facts that he added later were done by somebody else. I looked for a nice clean modern font that slightly resembled the one from the movie. The final polished version of the tattoos took me about... I don’t know, maybe four days to finish. I always feel like it’s possible that the viewer will be looking very closely at something, so I always want to do it properly.
Rather than incorporate multiple characters in this concept you chose a single figure in Guy Pearce’s character. Why did you choose to do that?
When I initially started the concept by myself, I was putting in Natalie, Teddy, the motel, and it simply didn’t work. Eventually, my brother and I found that the best option was to only use Leonard in the artwork - if you cannot remember anything nor anyone, you’re always alone in a way. You don’t need everybody else or their heads or whatever to have a strong poster - that was our thinking. He’s alone in there, which is very much like the end of the movie when he decides to shut and open his eyes just to discover the world is still there... but the world has “reset”.
Finally, you are currently working on an encompassing piece from Nolan’s career thus far. Was this harder to accomplish because you had already tackled many of his works?
It was a huge challenge. A few things were problematic. First, it was the amount of films I needed to include, but I was able to incorporate pretty much all of them. I wouldn’t count Following (1998) though but there is an easter egg dedicated to the film in there as well. Luckily for me, Nolan hasn’t made that many movies. Was it easier for me because I had done his other movies? I wouldn’t say so. It was much more difficult to put everything there and make it all work. Also, because I was trying to put them all chronologically, which I failed doing in the end to be honest, the first thing I needed to do was to find a good photo of Nolan, and I managed to find one where he was looking ahead in profile, like someone who’s actually thinking about what he’s doing, which was perfect for me. Then on the left side, I had room to place everything else. So, I started with Leonard, who is slightly disappearing. That’s a hint to the Memento poster, which we just discussed. Then there is Insomnia (2002), I think I prefer the original Scandinavian version, but I still think it was a great film. Then there was The Prestige (2006) where I incorporated Tesla in there as well. Normally Tesla shouldn’t be there if I’m incorporating all the main characters or a very important scene, but Tesla is one of those guys that I believe, no exaggeration, might have been a genius, and Nolan is very close. He’s a master. It was supposed to be like a hint. Tesla. Nolan. Same thing. Then we have a huge Batman, and quite a few people have asked me “why so huge? You already did a trilogy,” but I’ve said “it’s three movies. We need to show somehow that out of ten movies, three movies dedicated to a character is a lot.” So pretty much one third of his career is Batman. If I were Nolan, I would definitely prefer to be known for Interstellar, Memento and all his other films, but like I said, and I’m sure you agree, Batman is great. He should never be ashamed or anything. Then there should be Inception, but I want to do a poster for it, so I did not want to use any of the super great material from the film, like the corridor fight or the truck falling off. I simply took, and I rarely do this, the official one sheet of the film and found this nice pose of Leonardo DiCaprio, so that part was pretty simple as I looked for a matching pose. With Dunkirk, I figured a single soldier would work well with the single character from Inception. I think most important about using that single character, is that Nolan always tells a story of a single character that is put in a hard situation.
How do you go about drawing the most important elements from so many movies? Is it easier to incorporate the elements you wanted to or leave out some that you wanted to include?
Well, probably the latter. He has amazing films with amazing cinematography, but there are too many scenes to use potentially. For example, I’d mentioned that I skipped the Inception materials, so I wouldn’t reuse them in future. At the time of doing this, I was pretty far into Interstellar in terms of the concept and composition. The library will probably reappear in the poster for the individual film, but who knows how and in what context exactly. There are many layers to it. On top of the artwork, in the middle, I placed two versions of “Christopher Nolan” written out, one with a normal and custom font for the regular and variant posters respectively, and the other one in braille. It has this hidden meaning with braille, which is a nod to TARS, which was also written in braille.
What do you hope people see once you have completed a piece of work? Do you want to observe the overall composition or be interested in the different elements?
I would never say I prefer those who sit down with goggles and explore every element, but that’s definitely how I make my posters. There are hidden meanings, there are lots of details, easter eggs and stories behind them, and if you look closely, you just might spot some of them. It’s a bit like with books or films too - everybody gets a chance to notice something else at times. I think that some people tend to slide on the surface, and others read everything about the film’s creation, some funny stories and everything. I often get that question, “how do you compose things? How do you make things work?” Some of that just happens naturally. I mean, you put something here, maybe it doesn’t work, or you put it somewhere else, and you think this is right. Then from this one thing that works, you need to grasp everything else. For me, the most natural way to scan things is that you start in the left corner and you go through the rest. In the case of the Nolan poster, you need to start in the top left corner. I have an interesting story that I think I can add here, not about posters but about the creative process in general. Back at the Academy, a long time ago, I was doing these very large-scale drawings. They were three meter by meter and a half still life pieces that were not apples and oranges on a plate, but compositions made of materials, like a sheet. You would mold it into a mess or something and then display it to be drawn. After I had been drawing for three months, these little curves and stuff, I was ready to kill myself. The professor came up to me and says “Krzysztof you’re doing this wrong. You’re looking at the material and you go, ‘I see something there, this little detail,’ and thinking ‘I need to draw it.’ You shouldn’t be looking at it like this. You should see mountains, you should see waves, you should see different things that will free you from the sort of hyper realistic approach.” I know it may sound a bit muddy for this anecdote, but it changed my viewing of it. When you dive into details like the jungle or whatever, instead of only seeing leaves and whatnot, I started to see these hard to describe elements that you can see in my drawings.
Now that you have grown into this AMP process and become one of the best artists in the field, is it something you see continuing?
I would never say no to a change, but right now I’m way too satisfied with what I do. I would not agree that I’m one of the best. I feel like I’m not there yet and this mountain is yet to be climbed, but I’m really glad if someone feels that way about my work. I feel I’m a bit different in what I do, or at least I try to be and that’s the only thing that interests me in regard to doing posters. I’m totally not bored. I have really cool concepts that I would love to share, but with my approach, it always needs to be perfect and completely polished, so most often those concepts lie around and wait for a better time.
You’ve actually mentioned a couple times but I’m guessing the next Nolan property you would want to tackle would be Interstellar correct?
Probably, yeah. I have so many people already asking me for his various films which is very, very flattering. Recently Tenet (2020) came up a few times but I have not yet seen it. But yeah, let’s see what life brings. I’ll see Tenet first and then who knows? Maybe Interstellar? Inception is also very close.
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