Solo posters that aren't the subject of a heist

March 2018
Dave

In February this year, we had the joy of seeing the posters for the upcoming Solo: A Star Wars Story movie. And we all agreed on the Council how much we loved them. They were reminiscent of western movies of the 1950s and 60s, with a worn, gritty feel and yet containing vibrant colours.

However, towards the end of February and into early March, a number of stories appeared across social media that, perhaps, the posters were not as ‘original’ as the fans (and perhaps Lucasfilm) thought.

The artist Hachim Bahous posted on Facebook (a post which is no longer available) that he felt some of his work was familiar to the posters and that, perhaps, his own artwork had been the inspiration behind the posters. He included in his post (where he mentioned that he was flattered at the mimicry, if a little put out that he had not been consulted) the image on the right.

Sony France had hired Bahous to design a range of covers for ‘The Legacy of…’

We on the Council must admit that the artist has got a valid point – the structure and even the colours of the new posters have a more than passing resemblance to the designs used on the albums.

Following the post, Disney announced that they were ‘investigating the alleged plagiarism’ and that, “the posters were created by an outside vendor and it's something we are currently looking into” in an official statement.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and we have now been given new international posters.

The previous designs have been dramatically altered to do away with the parchment like overlay. The background images have been subtly altered to remove the weapons that each character was originally toting and at the same time promoted to become the principle focus of each poster.

The colour scheme for the original artwork has been retained for each and the result is a much more vibrant feel.

I like these new posters, very bold, striking and distinctive. Yes, the ‘original’ idea (if it can be called that) was perhaps more iconic but these re-inventions of the original artwork are still most impressive.

What do you think? Do you like? Follow us on Twitter and Instagram and tell us your thoughts about the new posters.