You know the visual artistry of Kenny Gravillis, and you have for years — decades even. You just don’t know that you know it. In the high-stakes world of Hollywood advertising, Kenny Gravillis is the creative maestro. His work is everywhere. As the visionary behind the shingle Gravillis, he is the definitive secret weapon for studios and top-tier filmmakers who demand more than just standard-issue posters.
The creator’s extensive portfolio includes iconic promotional material for a vast array of notable films, such as “Sinners,” “The Naked Gun,” “After the Hunt,” “Challengers,” “The Wild Robot,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “Dune,” “West Side Story” and “Birds of Prey.” This impressive body of work extends beyond movies to include TV show ads and album covers. Rather than relying on typical advertising, the artist focuses on crafting campaigns and film posters that spark conversation, making him and his company highly sought-after for those seeking truly memorable promotional material.
Gravillis threw open the doors to his boutique graphic design studio in 2000 by Kenny Gravillis and DeAnna Gravillis, armed with a mission: to create visually arresting communication that speaks to the sophisticated, savvy consumer. On the company website, Gravillis’ nature is stated in no uncertain terms: “We try to make cool looking shit that people want to talk about.”
Mission accomplished.
Gravillis continues to collaborate with ‘Sinners’ star Michael B. Jordan, left; The poster for ‘Logan’ is one of Gravillis’ more memorable campaigns, right.
From the start, he set his sights on cinematic and television campaigns that were anything but ordinary. It’s a vision that paid off spectacularly, propelling the studio from a bold newcomer to an undisputed market leader in the competitive landscape of entertainment advertising.
Gravillis’ career unfolded with an almost fated ease, with each step, from childhood passions to his current role, falling seamlessly into place as if guided by a divine hand. He grew up in London, a self-described “TV and movie junkie” who spent his ’80s youth devouring everything on the screen after his family got a VHS. A pivotal summer trip to New York cemented his love for American television.
He recalls a time in his life when a career in banking seemed to be the only viable option for a fresh graduate. Serendipity intervened, however, in the form of a relative who designed magazine layouts. A visit to his cousin’s workplace was all it took for his professional trajectory to change. “I remember going into that office, and this was obviously before computers, and just seeing just the energy of the office, the drawing boards, people laughing and joking and like, just having fun. And I was, ‘Oh my God, this is so much cooler than going into a bank.’”
Then the big break came in 1989 when, at 21, he got a job at Def Jam Records during their early years. And that was where his life changed. “I ended up designing album covers,” he says. “Music was my first intro into the world of design. Def Jam has definitely guided me throughout my career; ’89 through ’95. And that when the company really sort of exploded in a way, but it exploded in a way where it didn’t try to explode. It just was honest and authentic in the music it was putting out and then the world just gravitated towards it.”
‘Things Fall Apart’ album cover forThe Roots (1999)
MCA Records
Gravillis says his “claim to fame music-wise” was designing the cover for Notorious B.I.G .’s “Ready to Die” album. “When my son was like 14, he came up to me, he was like, ‘Dad, Mom said you designed the Biggie cover.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I did.’ He was, ‘OK. That’s cool. I gotta tell people about that.’” He laughs thinking about it.
When he started his company 25 years ago, for the first three years or so, that’s all they did: music. And the name were big ones, the likes of the Roots, Erykah Badu, Santana, Mariah Carey and many others. “It was a really good time,” he says. The music industry, and with it the art of album cover design, began to buckle around 2003. Digital music platforms like iTunes didn’t just change how music was sold; they physically shrunk the canvas. The intricate artwork of the LP and CD eras gave way to bold, simple and instantly recognizable designs optimized for a tiny digital thumbnail.
“The industry changed, and we needed to pivot — and the only thing that made sense to us was movies and TV,” he says. “We were very naive about it though. We thought we were so cool with all our music stuff. I think it would be different now, but back then in like 2000, 2003, 2004, we thought we could kind of just float over to the studios and be like, ‘Hey look, we’re these cool album cover kids.’ And the studios were like, ‘That’s a square.”
They are also very conscious of being pigeonholed. They noticed that when they started showing their work with such artists as the Roots, Common and Erykah Badu, a lot of the feedback they were getting was being putting them in a “you’re very urban” box. “I grew up on all types of films, so in my brain, I’m like, ‘When they say urban, what does that mean? Does that mean that we’re just going to be put on Black films?’ We were very nervous about it.”
‘Challengers’ poster art, left; Gravillis says, “’Back to Future,’ my favorite film. If my 15-year-old self said, ‘Forty years from now, we’re gonna redo this poster, my head would’ve blown off.”
But then, another lucky break came along: Miramax and a “weird” dark comedy with Johnny Knoxville and Elizabeth Banks called “Daltry Calhoun” (2005).
“The rumor goes that the marking people — I guess it wasn’t going well,” Gravillis recalls. “They had some comps that we did, and I guess they showed it to Harvey [Weinstein] or whoever it was at Miramax. He asked who we were, and that’s all we needed. And then all of a sudden, we started getting a ton of work from Miramax and [then the] Weinstein Company. That helped us just massively because the cool thing about Miramax and Weinstein was that their films were super artful and it was like indie darlings. So we kind of grew up as more like independent film.” And successful collaborations with Spike Lee, Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan have evolved into a constant flow of creative projects for Gravillis and his creative team.
Their list of film posters since then hits every genre imaginable and showcases their enormous range, from “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” to “The Color Purple” to “Alvin and the Chipmunks.” His ambitions extend far beyond his own company. He is dedicated to building a lasting legacy for the creative field by inspiring a new wave of designers through the Otis College of Art and Design-Netflix Career Pipeline Program. “Basically, it’s a program that teaches what we do. Then at the end of 14 months, we actually place the cohorts into agencies for six months, and it becomes about if they can get a job out of it at the end. Our first graduating class, which was last December, had 14 kids and 12 of them have jobs so far.”
“Gravillis has thrived in Hollywood for over 25 years because of its unmistakable style and fearless creative execution,” says Kalynn Jenkins, Chief Operating Officer of Gravillis Inc. “As we move into our next chapter, we’re expanding our focus to include more social and branding work — while continuing to be the creative force that has shaped some of the most iconic campaigns in film and entertainment.”
As the entertainment industry — and the world in general — continues to change, so does the Gravillis shop. In January, they started a social division. “As much as I love the printed poster, we all know how many eyes are looking at phones and looking at digital things,” he says. “Every agency is trying to figure out what the next steps are with that. … There’s an artistry there that people are still fending for. We have this term that ‘art will continue.’ I really believe that.”
