Born in Oregon in 1947, artist Drew Struzan rose from humble beginnings to the pinnacle of the movie poster industry, crafting iconic images for some of the biggest films and film series in movie history. A graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, where he worked his way through school by selling his artwork, Struzan was a freelancer for several years before being hired as a staff artist at Los Angeles design studio Pacific Eye & Ear, where he created album covers for artists such as Black Sabbath, Roy Orbison, Iron Butterfly and more. Struzan’s design for Alice Cooper’s Welcome To My Nightmare was voted voted by Rolling Stone as one of the Top 100 album covers of all time.
In 1975, Struzan started Pencil Pushers, an artistic collaboration that led to work on film posters. During this period, Struzan primarily created artwork for B-movies such as Empire of the Ants and Food of the Gods, until he was contacted by a fellow artist and offered the opportunity to work on the poster design for the 1978 re-release of Star Wars, the success of which made him one of the most in-demand artists in the world. In the years since, Struzan has produced artwork for the subsequent Star Wars films and books, as well as dozens of other films including E.T., Blade Runner, Back to the Future, The Goonies, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones and Police Academy. With his lifelike portraits and rich, detailed brushwork, Struzan’s designs highlight the strength and humanity of the characters and, in the process, helped to elevate the movie poster medium to the level of fine art.
