Blockbuster Designs

Scholastic Art: What is your job?

Dawn Baillie: I’m a creative director in entertainment advertising and a founding partner of BLT Communications. My team and I work with creative executives at all the major and independent movie studios to design marketing materials such as posters, social media posts, and trailers that promote new movie releases.

SA: How many movie posters have you designed in your career?

DB: I have created hundreds of movie posters during the past 40 years of my career. That includes works I created as a designer and as a member of a design team.

SA: What techniques do you use to keep your ideas fresh?

DB: Ideas stay fresh when you study current culture. Today nearly everything that is made starts with a designer’s idea. When you start to notice the design decisions that make things special, you begin to appreciate small, thoughtful details. And when you view design as the opportunity to pay attention to those little details, your work always stays fresh.

SA: What happens after the brainstorming stage?

DB: We present our best ideas to the movie studio. Each initial presentation to the studio includes between 20 and 30 ideas. Once an idea is selected, we go on location and do a photo shoot of the actors, sets, and environments we need to make the poster. Sometimes up to 500 comps can be required before a project is ready to go!

SA: What training did you receive?

DB: I earned a BFA in communication design and illustration, with a focus on painting, from Otis/Parsons, which is now Otis College of Art and Design. To this day, I still apply all the principles I learned there to every assignment I work on.

SA: Do you have advice for students who are interested in a career like yours?

DB: When you are paid to design in the movie business, you are working in service to the film. As a work for hire, your job is to make your client happy, so you need to be able to put your ego aside. In order to succeed in this industry, you must also love films and not be afraid of hard work. It takes a lot of work and long hours to make it in this business.