Drew Struzan | |
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.jpg) Struzan at the 2012San Diego Comic-Con | |
| Born | Howard Drew Struzansky (1947-03-18)March 18, 1947 Oregon City, Oregon, U.S. |
| Died | October 13, 2025(2025-10-13) (aged 78) Pasadena, California, U.S. |
| Education | ArtCenter College of Design (BFA) |
| Known for | Poster art,illustration |
| Spouse | Dylan Struzan |
| Children | 1 |
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Drew Struzan (/ˈstruːzən/; March 18, 1947 – October 13, 2025) was an American artist, illustrator, and cover designer. He was known for his more than 150film posters, which includeThe Shawshank Redemption,Blade Runner,E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, as well as films in theIndiana Jones,Back to the Future,Harry Potter, andStar Wars film series.[1] He also painted album covers, collectibles, and book covers.
Struzan was known for his airbrushed one-sheets technique when designing film posters. He began using this process early in his career when he designed posters forB movies. The technique was well received by such film directorsSteven Spielberg andGeorge Lucas, both frequent collaborators.[2]
During his career, he was awarded aSaturn Award in 2002 and anInkpot Award in 2010. He received several lifetime achievement honors such as the 2014Saul Bass Award, the 2016 Sergio Award for Lifetime Achievement from theComic Art Professional Society (CAPS) and was inducted into theSociety of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 2020.
Howard Drew Struzansky was born inOregon City, Oregon, on March 18, 1947.[3][4][5] In 1965, at age 18, he enrolled at theArtCenter College of Design, then in West Los Angeles.[6]
During his college years, Struzan thought about his interests and was told his career options would be either fine art or illustration. Struzan chose to be an illustrator due to the financial stability aspect of it.[7] In his first year in college, he married and became a father.[8] Struzan worked his way through school by selling his artwork and accepting small commissions. He graduated in five years, earning aBachelor of Arts degree with honors. He also completed two years of graduate studies.[9]
After graduating from college, Struzan remained in Los Angeles, and a trip to an employment agency found him a job as a staff artist forPacific Eye & Ear, a design studio. Struzan said he decided to become an illustrator instead of a fine artist because "I was poor and hungry, and illustration was the shortest path to a slice of bread, as compared to a gallery showing. I had nothing as a child. I drew on toilet paper with pencils – that was the only paper around. Probably why I love drawing so much today is because it was just all I had at the time."[10] There he began designing album covers under the direction ofErnie Cefalu, relishing the creative aspects the 12x12" size the record packaging afforded him. Over the next 5 years, he would create album cover artwork for a long line of musical artists, includingTony Orlando and Dawn,the Beach Boys,Bee Gees,Roy Orbison,Black Sabbath,Glenn Miller,Iron Butterfly,Bach,Earth, Wind & Fire, andLiberace. He also illustrated the T-shirt thatGeorge Carlin wears on the front and back cover of his 1974 albumToledo Window Box.[11]
Among these, Struzan illustrated the album cover artwork forAlice Cooper's 1975 albumWelcome to My Nightmare, whichRolling Stone would go on to vote one of the 100 Classic Album Covers.[12] Despite the burgeoning demand for his talents, however, Struzan was still only earning $150 to $250 per album cover.[13]
Struzan was hired by Pencil Pushers, a company that was started by Bill Pate, a long time well known art director famous for his one sheet designs for American International Pictures. It was during this time that he was mentored, and learned the distinctive one-sheet style that he adopted as his own and first became proficient in the use of the airbrush, which would later define him as a master of the tool. His first film poster works started appearing in 1975, although in those early days Struzan mainly did artwork for Pencil Pushers for B-movies, such asEmpire of the Ants,Food of the Gods, andSquirm.
In 1977 fellow artist Charles White III, well known for his own airbrush prowess, had been hired by David Weitzner, Vice President of advertising at 20th Century Fox, to create a poster design for the 1978 re-release ofStar Wars. White, uncomfortable with portraiture, asked Struzan for his help on the project. As such, Struzan painted the human characters in oil paints and White focused on the ships,Darth Vader,C-3PO, and all the mechanical details of the poster art.[14]
The unique poster design, popularly called the "Circus" poster, depicts what appears to be a torn posted bill on a plywood construction site wall. "It was necessity that invented that," Struzan explains. "They found out there wasn't enough room for the typography and the billing block they had left in the design. What can we do to make more space on a poster that's already been printed? Let's pretend it's posted, then they can put the type below the actual poster. We paintedObi-Wan down the side and stuff across the bottom to make it wider and deeper."[15]
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s while employed by Pencil Pushers, Struzan helped to produced poster work for such films asThe Seven-Per-Cent Solution,Blade Runner,The Thing,The Cannonball Run, thePolice Academy series,Back to the Future,Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,The Muppet Movie,Coming to America,First Blood,Risky Business,D.C. Cab,Stroker Ace,Batteries Not Included,An American Tail, andThe Goonies.[16]
During this period, Struzan continued his association with Lucas by designing the originalIndustrial Light & Magic logo, and creating the associated one-sheet artwork for both the continuingStar Wars saga and theIndiana Jones series of films. In the process, Struzan's work became, in the public mind, the defining visual images representing those series. As such, he was also sought after to create new artwork for re-releases and reissues on video and DVD, book covers, theme-park rides and video game titles for those properties.[2][16]
In the 1990s, with the advent of computers and digital manipulation of images utilized to create poster art, Struzan was affected by the decline of traditionally illustrated poster art. While continuing to create artwork for such 1990s and 2000s films asHook,Hellboy and the American poster forHarry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, he started exploring other outlets for his work, including comic books, limited-edition art, and the collectible market. As such, his work has been featured on such diverse items asFranklin Mint collectible plates, including a twelve-piece set commemorating the life of Princess Diana, the 1996 cover forParker Brothers board gameClue,[17][18] and over 30 U.S. postage stamps, including the 2004John Wayne stamp and the 2007James Stewart stamp.[19][20]
Struzan once lamented the decline of traditional art in an e-mail exchange:
I love the texture of paint made of colored earth, of oil from the trees and of canvas and paper. I love the expression of paint from a brush or a hand smearing charcoal, the dripping of paint and moisture of water, the smell of the materials. I delight in the changeable nature of a painting with new morning light or in the afternoon when the sun turns a painting orange or by firelight at night. I love to see it, hold it, touch it, smell it, and create it. My gift is to share my life by allowing others to see into my heart and spirit through such tangible, comprehensible and familiar means. The paint is part of the expression.[21]
In 1999, in an exhibit entitledDrew: Art of the Cinema, Struzan had over 65 pieces of his artwork presented at theNorman Rockwell Museum inStockbridge, Massachusetts.[22]
For the release ofStar Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace,George Lucas dictated that, contractually, Struzan's poster was the only art the foreign distributors could use, and other than the text, it could not be modified in any way.[23]
DirectorFrank Darabont reportedly based the lead character of David Drayton fromThe Mist on Struzan.[24] The film includes a nod toStephen King'sThe Dark Tower series, with Drayton seen painting an image based on the books in the opening scene. The artwork was created by Struzan, whose work also appears in the form of posters for films likeThe Shawshank Redemption andThe Green Mile.[25]
In 2008, Struzan in collaboration with his art director son, Christian, created the official poster for the80th Academy Awards.[26]
After completing the extensive artwork required for the campaign ofIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Struzan announced his retirement on September 3, 2008.[27]
A February 2009 exhibit entitledDrew Struzan: An Artist's Vision at Gallery Nucleus inAlhambra, California, presented select pieces of the artist's for the first public exhibit in 10 years.[28]
Struzan came out of retirement in 2012 to do a collaboration withMondo for a cover ofStephen King'sThe Dark Tower.[29] The resulting poster was based on the version created by Struzan originally as aneaster egg for the 2007 adaptation ofThe Mist.[30][31]
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The 2013 documentaryDrew: The Man Behind the Poster, directed by Erik Sharkey, examines Struzan's life and work, and features interviews with filmmakers and actors involved with films for which Struzan has done poster work, includingFrank Darabont,Harrison Ford,George Lucas,Michael J. Fox,Steve Guttenberg,Guillermo del Toro,Steven Spielberg andThomas Jane.[32] The film was scored by award-winning composerRyan Shore.[33]
Struzan came out of retirement again to design posters for the 2015 documentaryBatkid Begins: The Wish Heard Around The World[34] andStar Wars: The Force Awakens.[35]
In December 2017, to celebrate Struzan's 70th birthday, Robert Townson,Varèse Sarabande and theGolden State Pops Orchestra produced the tributeThe Magnificent Movie Poster World of Drew Struzan – live in concert which featured Struzan's artwork displayed to the live orchestral performance of associated film music. The performance included composersThomas Newman,John Debney,Brian Tyler,Marco Beltrami,Robert Folk, and Michael Kosarin, as guest conductors.[36][37][38]
In January 2019, for the release ofHow to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World Struzan came out of retirement again to create three separate posters for theHow to Train Your Dragon film trilogy.[39] This series followed the exclusiveComic-Con poster Struzan did for the release ofHow to Train Your Dragon 2 in 2013.[40]
Published in 2019, Struzan illustrated the bookA Bloody BusinessISBN 978-1785657702 aboutprohibition andorganized crime, written by his wife Dylan Struzan.[41]
To create his finished work projects, Struzan started by sketching out drawings ongessoed illustration board, then tinting the draftsmanship with airbrushed acrylic paint, finishing up the highlights and other details with colored pencils and more airbrush if needed. The gessoed foundation allows Struzan the luxury of being able to accommodate any requested changes to the work. Preferring to work on a 1 to 1 scale, Struzan's one-sheet work would be approximately 27 x 40 inches, the size of a printed movie poster. Working from reference photographs and live models, Struzan has been known at times to include depictions of himself, family members, and friends in his work. He is known for working very quickly, as it typically takes him a week to two weeks to finish a painting. With the theatrical release of theStar Wars special editions, Struzan created the three-panel triptych within the limited four-week deadline. The poster artwork forJohn Carpenter's 1982 remake ofThe Thing was created overnight, Struzan having received that assignment less than a day before the finished poster was needed.[42]
Working from a backyard studio, Struzan lived in California with his wife, Dylan. He had a son named Christian[43] and after retiring from full-time work in 2008 spent much of his time caring for his grandchildren.[44]
In March 2025, Struzan's wife revealed he had been living withAlzheimer's disease for several years, saying that his illness had progressed to the point where he was "fighting for his life" and could no longer paint or sign things for fans.[45] He died at his home inPasadena, California, on October 13, 2025, at the age of 78.[2][46][47]
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