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 soundtracks, clothing and apparel, toys, and re-issues of VHS releases. Founded in 2004 as Mondo Tees, the company is a former subsidiary 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, and currently hosts a permanent gallery space there which features original artwork and custom posters. In June 2022, Funko announced that it had acquired Mondo.

History

In 2001,

founder Tim League was visiting Kier-La Janisse in Vancouver 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 i ...

T-shirt 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 us ...

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 and The Walt Disney Company for more well-known properties like '' Star Wars'' 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 Ma ...

. 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, Laurent Durieux, Olly Moss, Gary Pullin, Matthew Woodson, Jay Shaw, Matt Taylor, Kevin Tong, Tom Whalen, Sam Wolfe Connelly, and Jock. In June 2022, Funko 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. In 2011, Mondo collaborated with Paramount Pictures 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'', director Guillermo del Toro 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 soundtrack 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