Mondo is an American company known for releasing limited edition

screen printed Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh ...

posters for films, television shows, and comics, as well as

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...

movie

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

s, clothing and apparel, toys, and re-issues of VHS releases. Founded in 2004 as Mondo Tees, the company is a former

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

of the

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is an American cinema chain founded in 1997 in Austin, Texas, which is famous for serving dinner and drinks during the movie, as well as its strict policy of requiring its audiences to maintain proper cinema-going etiq ...

chain in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

, and currently hosts a permanent gallery space there which features original artwork and custom posters. In June 2022,

Funko Funko Inc. is an American company that manufactures licensed and limited pop culture collectibles, best known for its licensed vinyl figurines and bobbleheads. In addition, the company produces licensed plush, action figures, apparel, accessories ...

announced that it had acquired Mondo.

History

In 2001,

founder

Tim League Tim League is an American entrepreneur and film producer based in Austin, Texas. He is the founder of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain and the founder of the film distribution company Drafthouse Films, where League has produced films includi ...

was visiting Kier-La Janisse in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

for the CineMuerte Film Festival. League visited a vintage

iron-on Iron-on transfers are images that can be imprinted on fabric. They are frequently used to print onto T-shirts. On one side is paper, and on the other is the image that will be transferred in reverse. The image is printed with iron-on transfer ...

T-shirt A T-shirt (also spelled tee shirt), or tee, is a style of fabric shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves. Traditionally, it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a ''crew neck'', which lacks a collar. T-shirts are general ...

shop called Bang-On, and years later, pitched the idea of a T-shirt store as a branch of the Drafthouse chain to Janisse and her boyfriend Lester Smolenski. With the help of graphic designs from Smolenski, who worked for Bang-On, the offshoot Mondo Tees was established in 2004. In spring 2004, Mondo Tees collaborated with Graham Williams of the Austin club

Emo's Emo's, formerly known as The Back Room, is a music and event venue located in Austin, Texas. Emo's got its start as a Houston punk club in 1989, with the Austin location opening in 1992. The Houston location closed its doors in September 2001 ...

for a summer outdoor film and music festival called Cinemania, wherein the Drafthouse booked the screenings and Emo's booked the live music shows. Ticket sales failed to reach even one thousand in number, and so to prevent the festival from being a financial failure, it was moved indoors and a line of custom posters were created to promote the event. Williams hired freelance designer Rob Jones, who had created posters for Emo's performances in the past, and Jones produced posters highlighting the planned screenings of '' Better Off Dead'', '' Foxy Brown'', and '' The Warriors''. Mondo Tees continued working with Jones for the

Quentin Tarantino Film Festival The Quentin Tarantino Film Festival, or QT-Fest, was a semi-annual film and multimedia event held by the Austin Film Society in Austin, Texas and attended by film director Quentin Tarantino, where he screened a selection of his favorite films usi ...

in 2006, and Jones introduced the founders to artists such as Jay Ryan, Todd Slater, and Tyler Stout, and the company shifted its focus to posters more so than T-shirts. Jones is currently a creative director at Mondo. Creative director Justin Ishmael and co-founder Mitch Putnam helped elevate the business model to secure licensing from companies like

Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is a business segment of The Walt Disney Company. The studio is best known for creating and producing the ''Star Wars'' and ' ...

and

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

for more well-known properties like ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'' and the

Marvel Cinematic Universe The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appear in American comic books published by ...

. Ishmael, who joined the company in 2009, left to pursue other opportunities in 2015. In 2017, in collaboration with USAopoly's Project Raygun division, Mondo released their first board game: ''The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31'', based on the 1982 film '' The Thing''. Artists who have created posters with Mondo include

Becky Cloonan Becky Cloonan (born 23 June) is an American comic book creator, known for work published by Tokyopop and Vertigo. In 2012 she became the first female artist to draw the main '' Batman'' title for DC Comics.Beck, Laura (February 8, 2013)"Meet the F ...

, Laurent Durieux,

Olly Moss Oliver Jonathan Moss (born 24 January 1987) is an English Graphic designer, graphic artist, best known for his reimagining of movie posters. His work has been released by Mondo (American company), Mondo and is regularly featured in Empire (film ...

, Gary Pullin, Matthew Woodson, Jay Shaw, Matt Taylor, Kevin Tong, Tom Whalen, Sam Wolfe Connelly, and Jock. In June 2022,

announced that it had acquired Mondo.

Growth and reception

Posters released by Mondo have been added to the movie poster archive of the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

, as well as included in the catalog of

Heritage Auctions Heritage Auctions is an American multi-national auction house based in Dallas, Texas. Founded in 1976, Heritage is an auctioneer of numismatic collections, comics, fine art, books, luxury accessories, real estate, and memorabilia from film, mu ...

. In 2011, Mondo collaborated with

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

on custom posters for '' Transformers: Dark of the Moon'' and '' Captain America: The First Avenger''. When Mondo released a custom poster for the film ''

Pan's Labyrinth ''Pan's Labyrinth'' ( es, El laberinto del fauno, lit=The Labyrinth of the Faun, links=no) is a 2006 dark fantasy horror film written, directed and co-produced by Guillermo del Toro. A Spanish-Mexican(78% Spanish production, 22% Mexican productio ...

'', director

Guillermo del Toro Guillermo del Toro Gómez (; born October 9, 1964) is a Mexican filmmaker, author, and actor. He directed the Academy Award–winning fantasy films ''Pan's Labyrinth'' (2006) and ''The Shape of Water'' (2017), winning the Academy Awards for Be ...

stated "I felt completely overwhelmed and happy. I'm a huge fan of their posters. They involved me in approving every step of the design. They took some of my notes to heart, but mostly my notes were 'Wow!'". Beyond posters, Mondo and its sister label Death Waltz have received positive reception for their

releases, which feature custom cover art, inner art, and special designs on the vinyl records themselves.

MondoCon

MondoCon is an annual festival held in Austin that showcases the artwork of Mondo and features exclusive collectibles, panels, and special screenings with filmmakers and artists. The event has been called "the world's coolest poster convention" and "the venerable kingpin of the artisanal movie poster game".

References

External links

*{{official website, https://mondotees.com/
Alamo Drafthouse collection of Mondo posters
Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Culture of Austin, Texas American companies established in 2004 Companies based in Austin, Texas Film advertising material Posters 2004 establishments in Texas 2022 mergers and acquisitions