50 Shades of Grey, the global bestseller book by E.L. James, has been turned into a film slated for a cinema release in early 2015. The '50 Shades' phenomenon has taken the world by storm with its tale of romance and forbidden love and been the subject of satirical books (50 Shades of Early Grey Tea), Youtube clips and an infinite number of Tumblrs on the subject (50 Shades of Wat & 50 Shades of Why) to name a few. In anticipation of the movie, we've launched a contest that asked designs to submit alternative '50 Shades' movie poster designs.

Designers were free to play around with the title and subject matter and encouraged to inject some humor into their design submission. Over 30 designers submitted 50 designs featuring hilarious pop culture references including the Muppets to Disney, Predator, Ace Ventura, Spongebob and more. Keep an eye out for '50 Shades of Green' and '50 Blades of Wei'.

The Winners

After a tough judging round, US designer Charles W King took out his first contest win on DesignCrowd for his submission 'Mr M.O.U.S.E Will See You Now' for its 'acute attention to detail, including setting Disneyland in the background'.

Second place was awarded to the enigamatic US designer Dollylama who was inspired by cult TV series Breaking Bad, with the submission 'Mr. White Will See You Now". Picking an Emmy-winning TV show was a good strategy by Dolly with Breaking Bad actor Brian Cranston who portrays Walter White in the AMC crime drama series nabbing best actor and Bad earning a swag of wins at last month's Emmys. We loved the typographic reference to the TV series in the design too.

Best of Showcase

I wanted to make a simple and fun design to represent Disney so I added the landscapes of Disney World Castle, Epcot and used a lil Mad Men in here with the phone on the floor. I used an image of a Mickey figure and made it look as close to the poster image as possible with shading. Was a fun challenge to work on.
Charles W King

Unless you're a film geek you might not recognise the face of Sir Ray Harryhausen - the creator of stop-motion model animation or 'dynamation' who designer Buck Tornado made the subject of his quirky design. Blending animation and real life footage this technique had a momumental impact on early 20th cenutry filmmaking. You can learn more about this remarkable innovator here.

Hope you enjoyed the roundup! Let us know your favorite movie poster designs in the comments below!

Check out more designs: 50 Shades of Grey Movie Poster Contest

Need a Movie Poster or Logo Design?

DesignCrowd's 500,000+ designers are a talented bunch. If you have a similar project in mind or need a graphic design for your movie project - then look for other talented designers in DesignCrowd’s designer directory or try BrandCrowd's movie logo maker.

Written by Jo Sabin on Thursday, September 25, 2014

Jo Sabin is Head of Designer Community at DesignCrowd. She's led the company's public relations and social media programs since 2012. With more than ten years' experience working with Australian and international tech startups in the creative industries, Jo has been instrumental in meeting DesignCrowd's objectives in Australia and abroad. Get in touch via Twitter.