Castle in the Sky Poster

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Castle in the Sky is the story about two children, Pazu and Sheeta, and their search for the hidden, flying city of Laputa. Along the way they team up with pirates and stand against a greedy government agent. This is my personal favorite Miyazaki movie.

Ponyo Poster

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Ponyo. Hayao Miyazaki's take on Hans Christian Andersen's beloved The Little Mermaid. A magical goldfish named Ponyo falls in love with a boy named Sosuke and transforms herself into a human girl to be with him. This throws the balance of nature off and Sosuke must learn to truly love Ponyo in all her forms to restore the earth's balance.

Princess Mononoke Poster

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Today we have a twofer, mostly due to my own indecision during the design process. I ended up liking both variations of color: day and night. I thought it worked well with many of the film's themes, both visually and thematically: life and death, light and dark, humans and nature, love and hate. Princess Mononoke is a film about the negative impact humans have on nature in their pursuit of its precious resources. The film's protagonist, Ashitaka, acts as a mediator between the animal gods of the forest and the human settlement trying to find a peaceful solution that doesn't end in all out war.

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Kiki's Delivery Service Poster

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Continuing with my Miyazaki film series we have Kiki's Delivery Service. I had the privilege of watching this movie for the first time this past weekend and I really enjoyed it (no surprises there, right?). The story followed a young witch named Kiki who just turned thirteen. When a witch turns thirteen she leaves her home to find a town to become what I can only describe as its resident witch, i.e. she finds a town currently uninhabited by a witch and begins learning and applying her trade for the townsfolk. In Kiki's case she used her flying to open a courier business. The story was very cute. At the end of the story Kiki saved her young male suitor, Tombo, who was left hanging precariously from a runaway zeppelin. The zeppelin came to rest between a clock tower and another building as illustrated by the poster.

Nausicaä Poster

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Today's Miyazaki poster is for Nausicaä. The story is about a village of people trying to live in harmony with the earth while a deadly airborne plague corrupts the outside world. Giant insects called ohmu live in the corrupted forests and turn destructive when disturbed. Nausicaä is the princess of the small village and has a deep connection with nature. The story follows her as she attempts to save her people from destruction.

Spirited Away Poster

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I decided to work on a series of posters for visionary Japanese director, Hayao Miyazaki. Today's selection is the Oscar-winning, Spirited Away. An animated film about a young girl caught in a magical spirit world. I used big bold type to go with the simplified illustration style.