Among movie fans, it’s commonplace to hear someone call a slickly designed, artist-forward movie poster a “Mondo poster.” That’s because the company Mondo was long at the forefront of the pop culture art wave. Last year, though, that wave crashed when Mondo’s new owner, Funko, gutted much of the company’s talent. Now, that’s about to change or, more specifically, mutate.
Several members of the original Mondo team who were let go after Funko bought the company have now teamed back up as a new company called Mutant. Spencer Hickman, Eric Garza, Mitch Putnam, and Mo Shafeek, all former Mondo creative directors, are working with CEO Jenny Jacobi under the umbrella of Spectrevision, a film company co-founded by Elijah Wood and Daniel Noah. “It’s not hyperbole to say that we’re superfans of this team and their work,” Wood and Noah said in a statement. “Our offices are covered in their prints and our shelves lined with their records. It’s a true privilege to provide a platform for them to not only continue the incredible work they’re known for, but to also expand in ways that they’ve been keen to for years.”
As Mutant, the former Mondo team will go back to doing Mondo things: limited-edition posters, limited-edition vinyl records, and working with all the big studios and artists fans have come to expect. In the press release, Disney, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Legendary Pictures, and Netflix are mentioned, as are artists Aaron Horkey, Nicolas Delort, Matt Taylor, Deb Lee, Phantom City Creative, Rory Kurtz, Matthew Woodson, Greg Ruth, Francesco Francavilla, Teagan White, Daniel Danger, Murugiah, We Buy Your Kids, and Ken Taylor.
“We’re extremely excited about being back in the poster game as we aim for a ‘return to form’ for limited edition artwork,” Garza and Putman, who specialize in posters, said. “Our priorities centre around art-focused projects with an emphasis on championing our favorite artists, designers, writers, and filmmakers and continuing to push the boundaries of what we’ve accomplished already.”
On the vinyl front, Mutant already has releases lined up for JA Bayona’s Society of the Snow and Paul King’s Wonka. “With Mutant, we aim to build a foundation for fandom with curation and celebration—not only for the biggest soundtracks of the year but also for those films, television and video games that get lost in the sea of choices in the world of streaming,” Hickman and Shafeek, who specialize in albums, said. “We want to build a community where all are welcome by creating tangible pop culture products for all fandoms.”
Fans can find out more about Mutant on its new website, www.madebymutant.com, and on all social media platforms under than handle @MadeByMutant. And keep an eye on io9 Tuesday, January 30 for your first glimpse of Mutant’s initial poster offerings. The biggest name in pop culture art is back and it’s changed for the better.
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