Meet the Liverpool artist behind the posters of some of TV and film’s biggest productions

Over the past number of years, Liverpool’s presence on screen has come on in leaps and bounds.

Stars such as James Nelson Joyce and Jodie Comer are accelerating towards the A-list, and the number of shows and films set in the city is unrecognisable compared to ten years ago. 

The growing popularity of Liverpool on screen isn’t just giving light to actors from the region. Chris Barnes from Lydiate has been designing posters for film and television for almost ten years.

Chris said:

“I was involved in a short film, around 2016/17 maybe. There was no budget, and the lad who was directing it was like, ‘We need a poster’

“I’d done art at A-Level at Hugh Baird in Bootle, but then once I left college, I didn’t really do anything with it. When we needed the poster, I started with the free software you just get on your PC. I was playing around with it and enjoying it, so I kept doing it.”

Since starting his brand, Brutal Posters, Chris has made posters for productions such as This City is Ours, Rebel Ridge, and Time, though his big break came through designing fan art.

“The director who made Time is called Lewis Arnold, and the one he did prior to Time was called Des. It was an ITV drama, and I did some fan art for that. I did like a digital painting for it and put it on Instagram. About a week later, he got in touch via email, and he said he’d spotted my artwork online. He said, “Would you be interested in doing this?” That’s how I got the Time job.”

Chris told The Guide of his biggest inspiration when it comes to making posters:

“There’s definitely a favourite artist of all time, he passed away not long ago, an American illustrator called Drew Struzan.

“He’s done all the ones that I remember from the 80’s and 90’s from when you walked in the cinema. The magic of going in the pictures and they’re all there, and it’s like looking into a different world.”

Chris pulled back the curtain and told us how the process of creating a poster works.

“Once they’ve initially made contact, my preferred process is to get as many photographs from the client as I can. I have a good look through those. A lot of them offer to share the film or series just to give you a feeling of the themes and the colour tones. I’ll roughly try to cut out photographs, stick them in some kind of layout and send a composition over in that form to the client just so you can roughly see how I’m spacing everything out. 

“Once that has been okay’d, I’ll do more of a detailed sketch, so it is all digital at this stage, purely for speed. Then it’s just a matter of going in and repainting it from scratch. If everything goes to plan, I can probably have a poster started and finished in about a fortnight to three weeks.”

It wasn’t a quick process for Chris; he didn’t start building a real career in poster making until a couple of years ago.

“I work a lot for a company called Vinegar Syndrome, they’re releasing tonnes of films every couple of months, like older stuff, 80’s/90’s. They’re fully committed to keeping it traditional and real, rather than treating the artwork as if it’s an insignificant thing at the end of the process.

Chris told us of his dream to work with his favourite director, Shane Meadows (This is England, Dead Man’s Shoes) 

“Really gritty, proper British stuff, working class stuff, I think he’s brilliant. With regards to the super duper, like Steven Spielberg and that I think he’s pretty much got that covered.

Find out more about Brutal Posters here.

Find out more about Liverpool’s film productions here.

Find out what’s good up North on our new platform, The Northern Guide. 

From the best hotels, beauty spots, days out, food and more up North – visit thenorthernguide.com and follow The Northern Guide on Instagram HERE.