Raven Cruz on Poster Design, Olly Moss, and Winning a 2012 ADDY Award | Jackalope Ranch | Phoenix | Phoenix New Times | The Leading Independent News Source in Phoenix, Arizona
Navigation

Raven Cruz on Poster Design, Olly Moss, and Winning a 2012 ADDY Award

Earlier this month, the American Advertising Federation's Metro Phoenix branch announced this year's ADDY winners, which honor the best in local advertising campaigns. One young ADDY winner caught our eye: Raven Cruz, a 20-year-old senior at the Art Institute of Phoenix, won best in show in the student category for...
Share this:

Earlier this month, the American Advertising Federation's Metro Phoenix branch announced this year's ADDY winners, which honor the best in local advertising campaigns.


One young ADDY winner caught our eye:

Raven Cruz, a 20-year-old senior at the Art Institute of Phoenix, won best in show in the student category for a trio of minimalist movie posters.

The posters were a passion project for the San Diego native, inspired by her love of dystopian science fiction and horror movies, "the kind that make you uneasy because they could actually happen," Cruz says.

After taking classes in graphic symbolism and typography, Cruz began working on the series with Inception.

"I liked the original poster, but I thought it showed too much," she says. "They were almost giving away the whole movie."


Cruz's designs are incredibly thoughtful, serving as personal homages to the films. They're posters only a fan could design -- an idea reminiscent of the work of Olly Moss, who Cruz says is one of her heroes.


The posters are also the result of hours of watching and re-watching the movies. Cruz says her notebook is filled more with research and notes than actual sketches. 

Cruz hopes to follow in Moss' pop-art footsteps and become a poster designer, but the student designer has even more talents up her sleeve. She won a second ADDY award for digital illustration.  Follow Jackalope Ranch on Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest.

BEFORE YOU GO...
Can you help us continue to share our stories? Since the beginning, Phoenix New Times has been defined as the free, independent voice of Phoenix — and we'd like to keep it that way. Our members allow us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls.