3 Artists Making Modern VHS Box Art
Last time I flew cross country (c.2015), the movie du jet was “Maleficent.” Just about the time we find out why she becames all goth-like, the overhead video (you know, tour bus style monitors) kicked out. The announcement came across with sincere apologies, the VHS copy of Maleficent broke in the machine. It’s the 21st century and my airline still used VHS for entertainment?! Wait, they sill made VHS?!
I don’t know if it was a bootleg made by a rogue flight attendant, or a commercial copy made just for such antiquated entertainment systems. Either way, I doubt it had proper VHS box art. That little bit of extra design beyond just the movie poster pasted on the front – to help it stand out from the crowd. There were no on demand trailers, no social media recommendations – the tape was judged by it’s cover.
That said, here’s 3 artists that would do a bang up job making packaging for new releases, should analog media make a comeback.
1) “iamSteelberg”
Steelberg goes in straight for the old school video store aesthetic – the pre-Blockbuster, dimly lit corner video rental place that smelt of plastics, posters, and unsold candy. His boxes look like they’ve been held by hundreds of people over the years, each deciding if it was worth the $2.99 to take it home for the night. Genre stickers, bent corners and all.
In addition to making retro boxes for modern movies, Steelberg goes meta by making boxes for movies within movies (ie from Home Alone):
Relevant Links:
2) “OfftrackOutlet”
OfftrackOutlet also goes for the weathered box look, but in a more “been in a cabinet under your TV for decades” vibe. A few frayed corners and wrinkles because for some reason the tape doesn’t want to go back into the sleeve as easy as it came out. Other tapes look like they’ve just been un-cellophaned after an excursion to Suncoast video.
Going the extra mile, OfftrackOutlet actually dubs the movie to VHS! Making it a complete retro experience.
Relevant Links
3) “Stan VHS”
So as it turns out, Stan was a April Fools post by the French website Golem13 (hit yer translate button) back in 2015. In it they made it look as if VHS was making a hipster-esque comeback a la vinyl (nothing wrong with vinyl), spearheaded by the aforementioned format-snob Stan. Hoax or no, they did a bang up job with some of the box art:
One box would go perfect with that 1995 version of Game of Thrones floating about:
Relevant Links:
- Golem13: De Game of Thrones à Gravity : un hipster parisien regarde tout en VHS
- Stan VHS Tumblr
- Timeless VHS Instagram
- Via LaughingSquid
Should VHS ever make a come back, it looks like the marketing would be in good hands. Next stop, laserdisc!
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