Mad Men Poster

Mad Men

So I've been watching Mad Men for seven years and six-and-a-half series and it's coming to an end soon, so I thought I'd make this poster.

It's the first illustration I've made using only Vectors with no actual hand drawn elements. This isn't something I'm normally into - I like the character you get from drawing something by hand and I really enjoy the process. I also try and avoid minimalist poster designs as a general rule. I've seen some absolutely astounding examples of them dotted around the internet, but it's a pretty common trend these days and I think that minimalist design can sometimes be an excuse for not really doing a lot of work.

That being said, I thought those two things suited a Mad Men Poster pretty well. The opening credits and lots of the promotional art for the show feature Don Draper as an empty black silhouette, so I thought it would be a gas to spin that out into the rest of the main cast. I had sort of a Saul Bass thing in mind originally but I think it's actually come out looking a bit more Brady Bunch. Which was first broadcast around the time events in the world of Mad Men are set to draw to a close, so I'm just going to pretend it was my intention all along.

I didn't get to include some of my favourite characters in the poster, generally because their silhouettes weren't iconic enough or they haven't had enough screentime to be recognisable. The hardest to leave out were Lane Pryce (played by Jared Harris) and Sally Draper (played by Kiernan Shipka) - two characters who grew in weird and complicated ways during their time on the show, taking them from slightly annoying plot-necessities through to fully formed reasons to tune in. I also have a lot of time for: Sal Romano, Stan Rizzo, Michael Ginsberg, Ted Chaough and Sylvia Rosen...

And now, writing that list, I can't stop thinking of all the other terrific characters who popped up over the years. Like, remember when Colin Hanks was a priest and he played that cover of "Early in the Morning" while sat on his bed with an acoustic guitar? That was amazing! I should have made a giant poster featuring every single character who has ever appeared on the show - they are all fantastic.

As it stands we have (left-to-right and row-by-row) Don Draper, Joan Harris (née Holloway), Bert Cooper, Peggy Olson, Roger Sterling, Pete Campbell, Betty Francis (née Hofstadt, formerly Draper), Megan Draper (née Calvet) and Ken Cosgrove rocking a sweet eyepatch.

It's a great show and - if you haven't watched it yet - you should watch it. It will transport you to a trippy booze-soaked smokey world of existential ennui punctuated by bizarre flashes of extreme violence and brief moments of sublime beauty.