At the peak of his powers: the very best of Bob Peak’s poster art

Selling the dream: Bob Peak’s all-time classic efforts for Superman, Apocalypse Now and Star Trek: The Motion Picture are just three of his utterly unforgettable movie poster masterpieces

Nowadays, sadly more than 20 years after his death, he’s often referred to as ‘the father of the modern movie poster’ and, genuinely, it’s a title that’s not ill-fitting for the late, the great Bob Peak. Many of his illustrative advertisements for Hollywood flicks of lore are ubiquitous – and have been since they were created back in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. They’re simply among the greatest and most iconic movie posters ever created.

During those three aforementioned decades, Peak – along with his similarly brilliant rival Drew Struzan – was Tinseltown’s go-to-man for producing engaging, nay captivating posters that would stick long in the memory (sometimes longer than the contents of the movies they advertised). Originally a geology student and after serving his time in the Korean War, he returned to college to study art and, coming out the other end, settled in New York and set himself up as a commercial artist.

Almost immediately he was in demand – as soon as 1961 he was called on to produce  the poster for the blockbusting, Oscar-magnet musical adaptation of West Side Story. And after that, the film poster commissions came his way in an incessant surge – among them, My Fair Lady (1964), Camelot (1967), Rollerball (1975), Superman (1978), Apocalypyse Now (1979) the Star Trek series and more than one Bond film (see ’em all below).

But what was so special about Peak’s posters? Quite simply, marrying avant garde techniques (tracers of light and art deco-esque bold lines) to brilliant realisations of form (verticals and diagonals, triangles and circles) along with an outstanding ability at portaiture and, overall, an imagination overflowing with ideas, he brought a vitality and unforgettableness to poster design which was perfect, in particular, for the genres of the (admittedly) fading big-budget musical and the undoubtedly stratospheric-seeking fantasy adventure.

His work was, however, far from limited merely to cinema. He was actually far more prolific in magazine advertorial and cover images – his artwork for the likes of Time, Cosmopolitan and TV Guide (US) running into the hundreds. Much of these such efforts were far from the intoxicatingly dreamy recipes he cooked up for Hollywood, yet were no less striking; often exhibiting his ability for creating fast, stark, loose and bold work full of movement and interesting perspective.

A stylish man in himself with a love for beautiful, fast cars, Bob Peak was stolen from us all too soon. Were he still around, who knows, maybe the best of today’s blockbusters would be advertised via feasts for the eyes at his hand? One can only speculate – and inspired by the best of his poster art – dream away…

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CLICK on the images for full-size 

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Sci-fi, spy-fi and fantasy

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Superman (1978)

 
 

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Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)/ Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan (1982)/
Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (1984)/ Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1987)

 
 

Star Trek: The Motion Picture – unused artwork

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The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)/ Licence To Kill (1989)

 

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.Excalibur (1981)

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Rollerball (1975)/ Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)

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Adventures and musicals

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Apocalypse Now (1979)

 
 

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Every Which Way But Loose (1978)/ Any Which Way You Can (1980)

 

Any Which Way You Can – unused artwork

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The Voyage (1974)/ The Year Of Living Dangerously (1983)

 

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The Missouri Breaks (1976)/ Pale Rider (1985)

 

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.My Fair Lady (1964)/ Funny Girl (1968)

 

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The Wiz (1978)/ Hair (1979)

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Camelot (1967)/ Pennies From Heaven (1981) 

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Advertising, articles and sport

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7 Up/ Winston cigarettes/ Lord West men’s clothing/ Hanging Loose slacks

 

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Illustrations for 1964 Cosmopolitan magazine article ‘Never Marry For Love’/
Illustration for spy-themed Life magazine article ‘for boys’ 

 

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1984 Olympic Games illustrations for the US Mail postage stamps

   

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Bob Peak

(1927-92)

 

All images are copyright Bob Peak and – along with many more – can be found in the coffee-table book The Art Of Bob Peak

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Further reading:

bobpeak.com

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