Hiroki rich

The Making of 7 Iconic Movie Posters

While at Universal, one of the most unique design challenges Martin faced came from Jurassic Park director Steven Spielberg.

The assignment? Create a logo that could brand both the movie and the fictional theme park in it.

“We visited the set during the production and saw some of the dinosaurs and props,” says Martin. “They were actually going to have branded products, merchandise in the store in the film. They needed a logo to put on the items in the gift shop.”

Even though Martin had the help of his design group at Universal, it was customary to farm out some of the work with vendors and boutiques like the one he had come from. Each agency who agreed would get paid for their work and if the art was chosen for the film, that company would receive a “usage fee”.

Ultimately, they turned to the dinosaur logo that had been used on the cover of the original Michael Crichton novel.

“Chip Kidd, who’s a renowned book cover designer created the skeleton drawing,” says Martin. “We adapted his graphic into the circle and the type based on a quick, 1-inch thumbnail sketch the film’s production designer had sent over.

But Martin believed the movie logo needed more than just the dinosaur image from the book. He found a classic typeface (Newland), and added an inline for depth.