The Anatomy of a Movie Poster: The Work of Dawn Baillie

A poster’s job is to celebrate a film in one frame. The job is well done when an audience is piqued and the poster makes it to the dorm room wall. — Dawn Baillie, NY Times Interview, 2024

For a young Dawn Baillie, the theaters along Hollywood and Sunset Boulevard served as her personal art gallery. In her high school yearbook, Baillie (then Teitelbaum) memorialized her dream of designing movie posters. She brought this ambition to life by carrying a full-sized reimagined poster of Harold and Maude (1971), created in 1985 during her senior year at Otis College of Art and Design, into an interview with future mentor Tony Seiniger, the creator of the Jaws (1975) poster. He hired her on the spot for $100 a week, thus launching her award-winning career spanning nearly four decades and three design agencies.  

Entering an industry dominated by men, Baillie shattered glass ceilings, becoming the first woman to cofound an American print agency, BLT, in 1992. Since 2022, her firm is 100% employee owned. Baillie has received numerous prestigious industry awards, including being honored as the inaugural winner of the Saul Bass Award in 2012.

The JBFC is excited to showcase a collection of sixteen of Baillie’s most celebrated posters, including her iconic 1987 design for Dirty Dancing, the unforgettable 1991 poster for Silence of the Lambs, her pioneering digital work on The Truman Show from 1998, and her recent standout design for Barbie in 2023.   

Visit the third floor in the Jane Peck Gallery to enjoy this exhibit. It’s accessible seven days a week during Theater operating hours.   

This exhibition comes to the Jacob Burns Film Center from Poster House in New York City, with original support from NYSCA/DCAL. All posters are part of the Poster House Permanent Collection.