Modern movies get a VHS makeover
Relive the glory days of renting a film from the video library with these fantastic VHS treatments of today's top titles.
We have nothing against modern movie posters and Blu-ray cover designs, but there's nothing like the cover artwork you used to get on 1980s VHS releases to really set our hearts a-flutter.
It was a golden age of vivid cover artwork, with new Schwarzenegger action extravaganza battling the latest Nightmare on Elm Street for your attention down at the video library, plus a whole host of straight-to-video B-movies trying to tempt you with their over-the-top designs and in-your-face typography.
Idly scrolling through the latest Netflix releases just doesn't compare to these masterpieces of lurid '80s design, and this mysterious artist known only as Steelberg seems to agree. He (we're assuming Steelberg's a he) is giving modern movies a thorough 1980s makeover, and has created a stack of gloriously authentic-looking VHS cases that wouldn't have looked out of place down your local Blockbuster in 1986.
Everything about these retro designs looks absolutely right, with pitch-perfect artwork and typography combined with plenty of extra touches such as studio logos, age ratings, breathless straplines and, of course, the classic VHS logo that was your guarantee of adequate picture quality.
And to finish everything off properly, Steelberg has put these amazing covers into authentic VHS cases – some of which look like they've had a proper kicking over the years – to come up with an old-skool design collection that absolutely looks the part.
It seems to be an ongoing project; within the past few days Steelberg has come up with a fabulous design for the latest Star Wars adventure, Rogue One, and there are more strings to his bow: if you look through his work you'll also find a couple of fantastic Star Wars helmets crafted out of cardboard, plus a brilliant Star Wars blaster.
You can see more of Steelberg's work over on Instagram and Facebook, and we'd advise you to keep checking back; we expect many more retro gems to appear in the future.
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Jim McCauley is a writer, performer and cat-wrangler who started writing professionally way back in 1995 on PC Format magazine, and has been covering technology-related subjects ever since, whether it's hardware, software or videogames. A chance call in 2005 led to Jim taking charge of Computer Arts' website and developing an interest in the world of graphic design, and eventually led to a move over to the freshly-launched Creative Bloq in 2012. Jim now works as a freelance writer for sites including Creative Bloq, T3 and PetsRadar, specialising in design, technology, wellness and cats, while doing the occasional pantomime and street performance in Bath and designing posters for a local drama group on the side.