LWLies Sixties Presents… 2001: A Space Odyssey… | Little White Lies

LWLies Sixties

LWLies Six­ties Presents… 2001: A Space Odyssey reimagined

10 Jun 2021

Words by Adam Woodward

Bright, abstract illustration with vibrant, geometric shapes and patterns in a dark, starry sky. A large, central sphere is surrounded by colourful, radiating lines and shapes.
Bright, abstract illustration with vibrant, geometric shapes and patterns in a dark, starry sky. A large, central sphere is surrounded by colourful, radiating lines and shapes.
Our part­ner­ship with 99designs by Vistaprint con­tin­ues with Jim Stoten’s psy­che­del­ic take on Kubrick’s sci-fi classic.

LWLies Six­ties is part of #99DaysOfDesign, from 99designs by Vistaprint. Check out all the posters in the series and dis­cov­er more at 99de​signs​.com

It’s one of the most icon­ic pieces of film art ever cre­at­ed: a rock­et ship blast­ing out of a giant, wheel-spaced space sta­tion as the Earth hangs serene­ly in the back­ground. This was the awe-inspir­ing image that intro­duced the world to Stan­ley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi opus 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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The poster in ques­tion – one of sev­er­al com­mis­sioned for the film’s ini­tial the­atri­cal run – was paint­ed by famed Amer­i­can illus­tra­tor Robert McCall, who worked as NASA’s offi­cial in-house artist at the height of the Space Race.

In homage to both this endur­ing celes­tial scene and Kubrick’s film, we com­mis­sioned Lon­don-based illus­tra­tor Jim Stoten to rein­ter­pret 2001: A Space Odyssey as part of our ongo­ing part­ner­ship with 99 Days of Design, a cel­e­bra­tion of the pow­er of design from 99designs by Vistaprint.

Stoten built his poster ​“like a col­lage, using icon­ic images to rep­re­sent dif­fer­ent aspects of what I want­ed to com­mu­ni­cate and organ­is­ing them into a strik­ing com­po­si­tion.” See if you can spot all the ref­er­ences to the film which Stoten has incor­po­rat­ed into his bold psy­che­del­ic vision.

Colourful illustration with text "2001" and "A Space Odyssey", eye symbol, abstract geometric shapes and patterns, planets, stars, furniture, and a primate figure.

Speak­ing more about his design, Stoten says, ​“I want­ed to show the depth of the sto­ry in the film, which to me deals with the nature of being a human in a mod­ern world – you are born, you reach for the stars (metaphor­i­cal­ly) and strive to achieve life goals which are com­mu­ni­cat­ed to you through your child­hood, and then you decline and expire sur­round­ed by the fruits of your achievements.

“I also want­ed to show how rel­e­vant this film still is in terms of how it deals with arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and the over­ar­ch­ing influ­ence it has on the entire human expe­ri­ence, in the form of an all see­ing eye.”

Check out all six LWLies Six­ties posters and dis­cov­er more about 99designs by Vistaprint at 99de​signs​.com

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