Egyptian posters are found in various sizes and one can roughly evaluate
the age of Egyptian posters by their size. The 100 x 70 cm. (39" x
27") posters became the norm in the early 60s. Earlier posters had a
size of 90 x 61 cm (35" x 24"). There also have been some posters that
were 100 x 175 cm (39" x 70"). These are usually printed on 3 sheets .
There was also the 24 sheet that is about 348 x 172.5 (137" x
67.91"). This size was for the theaters outdoors, and it sometimes had
slightly different dimensions.The subject of Egyptian poster design has not been seriously
researched, The normal procedure in the earlier period was that both
the producer and the director would decide about the stills they would
like to have incorporated into the poster designs. These were given
to designers and painters, who would design the poster under close
supervision. There was probably not much freedom involved for the
designers. In the early days of Egyptian Cinema and up to the 60s
these were usually foreigners living in Egypt. S. Vassiliou was an
important designer in that period. In the early 60s and after the
cinema companies were nationalized. a controlling company was formed
that was both producer and distributor; it was called the General
Organization for Cinema [al-moassassa al-'ama lil-cinema] (GOS). At
that time more unconventional poster designs began to appear. Egyptian
cinema had broken free from older ideas and Egypt was interested in
keeping its position as the Hollywood of the Arab world. Many new and
young designers began to appear, including Salah Marei, Nagui Shaker
and many others. These young artists were influenced by the East but
made quite interesting posters. It is said that Shadi Abdel Salam
himself designed the poster for "The Night of Counting the Years", a
film better known under its Egyptian name "The Mummy", again produced
by the GOS. Few producers/directors continued this trend after the
disappearance of the GOS. Youssef Chahine for many reasons has always
wanted his posters to be attractive also to foreign audiences and he
has consistently made posters that are outside the mainstream of
Egyptian poster design, usually with slightly different sizes than
those of the rest of the industry. for example the poster for the
1979 film "Alexandria Why" was a very unusual 69 x 85 cm (27" x 33").
For the poster for the 1976 film "The Return of the Prodigal Son", a
lithographic technique was used to print a poster designed by Raouf.
Chahine was also the one who got a well known artist (Salah Enani) for
designing the poster of Alexandria Kaman we Kaman (198?). Few
followed Chahine' lead. One film that must be mentioned here is
Alaragoz (Omar Al Sharif and Mervat Amin) directed by Hani Lashin.
Its marketing included three different poster designs which are
distinguished among the non conventional posters in the Egyptian
cinema.
However, there is some resistance to posters with abstract designs by
actors who want to see their face on the poster, or producers who do
not like departures from tradition. For example the original poster
for "Al-Kitkat" by Ihab Shaker was withdrawn after priting because the
producer decided to use a more conventional design that would better
attract audiences.
