{"id":88596,"date":"2025-06-25T08:17:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T08:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ccmagazine.es\/?p=88596"},"modified":"2025-10-05T06:00:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T06:00:52","slug":"vasilis-marmatakis-the-visual-mind-behind-yorgos-lanthimoss-posters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ccmagazine.es\/en\/vasilis-marmatakis-the-visual-mind-behind-yorgos-lanthimoss-posters\/","title":{"rendered":"Vasilis Marmatakis: the visual mind behind Yorgos Lanthimos\u2019s posters"},"content":{"rendered":"

During a new and inspiring edition of the Parad\u00eds 2025<\/strong><\/a> design and creativity festival, we spoke with him about how he fuses cinema, typography and emotion into posters that not only tell stories but create worlds.<\/u><\/p>\n

An encounter in advertising that became an alliance<\/h6>\n

The connection between Marmatakis<\/em> and Yorgos Lanthimos<\/em> wasn\u2019t born out of immediate creative understanding, but rather through a shared friendship. “We initially collaborated because we were both close friends with Efthimis Filippou, the screenwriter”<\/em>, Marmatakis<\/em> clarifies.<\/p>\n

While their professional relationship later became solid, he\u2019s quick to point out that Lanthimos<\/em> has also worked with other graphic designers throughout his career: “It\u2019s not just me”<\/em>, he notes modestly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The original 2009 poster (the one shown below, as the one above is a later reinterpretation) marked the beginning of an unmistakable visual language.<\/p>\n

Three clean lines on a white background didn\u2019t explain the plot, but suggested the distortion and fragmented perception of the protagonist family. A cryptic gateway that resonated so strongly that those very lines reappear as a visual motif within the film itself.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t really tell the whole story with an image\u2026\u201d<\/h6>\n

Marmatakis<\/em> argues that “you can’t tell the entire story of a film with a single image, but you can generate tension and anticipation”<\/em>.<\/p>\n

His posters are visual metaphors: in “Poor Things”<\/em>, for example, he explores “adulthood, freedom, oppression, sexuality, rebirth, femininity, masculinity and power”<\/em>.<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t show the plot; they convey emotion.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Creative freedom without limits or constraints<\/h6>\n

Whenever he takes on a new commission from Lanthimos<\/em>, Vasilis<\/em> receives the script, access to all photographic archives and the opportunity to visit the set \u2014 all without any graphic guidelines.<\/p>\n

Likewise, far from idealizing their creative relationship, Marmatakis<\/em> acknowledges that working with Lanthimos<\/em> is a process of dialogue, testing, and revision: “Yorgos is a creative who\u2019s always questioning, approving\u2026 but also rejecting”<\/em>. While Marmatakis<\/em> typically presents eight to ten concepts for each project, the collaboration isn\u2019t built on blind trust but on a demanding and open exchange where every idea is put to the test. The fact that Lanthimos<\/em> personally defends some of his poster designs to distributors and producers is rare in the industry\u2014and speaks to the respect he has for Marmatakis<\/em>\u2019s vision.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When it comes to technique, Vasilis<\/em> starts analog: he crafts collages on paper, digitises them and then prints them at 70\u00d7100 cm, using various types of paper to present them with the greatest possible fidelity. For “Poor Things”<\/em>, for instance, he presented 12 proposals: a free-form, intuitive exploration of visual possibilities.<\/p>\n

Evolution of the style<\/h6>\n

Dogtooth (2009):<\/strong> a minimalist and enigmatic poster, built from three black lines on a white background. Pure concept. Rather than describing the film, it aims to trigger a visual sensation that anticipates its unsettling, disorienting tone.<\/p>\n

The design was created by MNP<\/em>, the studio founded by Vasilis Marmatakis <\/em>and Katerina Papanagiotou<\/em>. The same lines appear in the film itself, echoing its fragmented perspective. “From the beginning, we understood that the poster shouldn\u2019t reveal anything. Only suggest<\/em>“, he recalls.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Alps (2011):<\/strong> a satirical, disconcerting collage that shows Everest masquerading as the Alps. An absurd image laden with irony, playing on false identity \u2014 a central theme of the film \u2014 and the notion of substitution.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s Everest pretending to be the Alps”<\/em>, he tells us, in perfect harmony with the film\u2019s emotional logic. Lanthimos<\/em> described it as “dark and satirical”<\/em>, a perfect summary of its tone.<\/p>\n

The Lobster (2015):<\/strong> one of his most celebrated and cryptic posters. In an unused version, Colin Farrell<\/em> is embracing an invisible figure: “it\u2019s the man in love with the very act of falling in love”<\/em>, he explains.<\/p>\n

The design evokes solitude, desire, loss \u2014 without showing anything literally. Like the film, it floats between the absurd and the profoundly human.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017):<\/strong> a clinical, almost surgical image: Farrell<\/em> standing rigid between two empty hospital beds. Tension suspended in the air.<\/p>\n

The symmetry, dominant white tones and visual coldness reinforce the film\u2019s atmosphere, allowing the spectator to sense the threat before fully understanding it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Favourite (2019):<\/strong> baroque and theatrical, like the film itself. Emma Stone<\/em> and Rachel Weisz<\/em> manipulate Olivia Colman<\/em>\u2019s bust, decorating it with pearls, in a composition that suggests power, control and contained violence.<\/p>\n

The typography \u2014 a historical serif with unusual spacing \u2014 and the use of monochrome accentuate the ambiguity between sophistication and brutality.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Poor Things (2023):<\/strong> his most free-form and emotive proposal yet. Marmatakis<\/em> creates a visual universe in which Bella Baxter<\/em>\u2019s hair becomes brushstrokes housing the faces of Ruffalo<\/em>, Dafoe<\/em> and Youssef<\/em>. “I didn\u2019t know how to approach it at first”<\/em>, he confesses. “But once inside the film\u2019s world, everything started to take shape”<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The poster doesn\u2019t represent; it pulses: an emotional explosion dissecting the mind of its protagonist with texture, colour and substance.<\/p>\n

Kind of Kindness (2024):<\/strong> a more abstract, fragmented visual proposal, in line with the film\u2019s episodic structure.<\/p>\n

Marmatakis<\/em> explores repetition and the breaking of visual patterns as a reflection of the script, creating a poster that doesn\u2019t seek unity but emotional resonance. “I didn\u2019t want to represent the characters, but rather the state of mind they were traversing”<\/em>, he explains.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The result is an unsettling image, deliberately disjointed, where each element seems to suggest \u2014 rather than say \u2014 reinforcing the idea that the poster doesn\u2019t illustrate but gently unsettles.<\/p>\n

Negative space and typography as protagonists<\/h6>\n

Marmatakis<\/em> creates visual tension through empty space, even though distributors sometimes insist on filling it with critics\u2019 quotes or logos. “Empty space is something they don\u2019t like, hahaha, but I think it\u2019s necessary”<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmpty space is something they don\u2019t like, hahaha, but I think it\u2019s necessary.\u201d<\/h2>\n

He also crafts bespoke typefaces for each film: for “Poor Things”<\/em>, he designed an extra thin, stretched font; for “The Favourite”<\/em>, he used Village, a turn of the century serif, cut out with unusual letter-spacing.<\/p>\n

Material & presentation: the sensory experience<\/h6>\n

Likewise, for Marmatakis<\/em>, format matters as much as idea. Thus, he prints his proposals in large format on textured papers. “For ‘Poor Things’, one of the posters I printed on mirror paper\u2026 For me, it’s important to present the idea in large scale and across different textures. It\u2019s an experience”<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Influences and early passion<\/h6>\n

His creative roots are deeply grounded in music design\u2014a world of album covers, visual rhythm, and symbolic resonance\u2014alongside strong influences from cinema, contemporary art, minimalism, and the irreverent playfulness of Dadaism. These references shape not only his aesthetic sensibility but also his way of thinking about composition and meaning.<\/p>\n

Marmatakis<\/em> carefully organises his ideas into reference folders, an ever-growing archive of inspiration he draws upon when beginning a new project. “The more you work, the more ideas emerge”<\/em>, he says, highlighting how the creative process feeds itself over time. It’s a system of quiet accumulation and intuitive response, where every new design is informed by years of looking, collecting and thinking.<\/p>\n

Beyond Lanthimos: expanded creativity<\/h6>\n

In addition to designing for Lanthimos<\/em>\u2019s next film, Marmatakis<\/em> works on visual identities (for an architect), a musical project with Kim Deal (Pixies)<\/em>, another with the great Dimitris Papaioannou<\/em><\/a>\u2026 His creativity flows beyond the cinema.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

An alliance that transcends the visual<\/h6>\n

As you can see, the symbiosis between Marmatakis<\/em> and Lanthimos<\/em> is far more than aesthetic: it is narrative, emotional, symbolic.<\/p>\n

Cinema awakens design, and design, in turn, amplifies cinema. Far from summarising the story, their posters build atmospheres, spark questions, open doors to the intangible. With unexpected compositions, visual silences and meticulously chosen typography, each piece becomes an echo of the film\u2019s inner universe.<\/p>\n

A graphic work that doesn\u2019t accompany the cinema: it inhabits it.<\/p>\n

Congratulations, maestro!<\/p>\n

(*) <\/strong>Images provided by Vasilis Marmatakis. Images from the Parad\u00eds festival by WeWonderStudio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During a new and inspiring edition of the Parad\u00eds 2025 design and creativity festival, we spoke with him about how he fuses cinema, typography and emotion into posters that not only tell stories but create worlds. An encounter in advertising that became an alliance The connection between Marmatakis and Yorgos Lanthimos wasn\u2019t born out of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":88447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5957,5918,5917,5916,5904,5903,5901,5900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design-en","category-inspiration-en-2","category-interviews","category-inspiration-en","category-cinema","category-culture-en","category-artists","category-art-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVasilis Marmatakis: the visual mind behind Lanthimos\u2019s posters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Explore the singular vision of Vasilis Marmatakis, the mastermind behind Yorgos Lanthimos\u2019s iconic film posters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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