Poster designer Paul Johnstone lends his services to Walthamstow's pop-up cinema Screen 17 (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

Poster designer Paul Johnstone lends his services to Walthamstow's pop-up cinema Screen 17

3:51pm Thursday 12th January 2012 in Highlights By George Nott

Designer Paul Johnstone has film posters on the brain. They hang all over his Walthamstow home, "though not as many as I would like" he tells me; his favourites ranging from '60s exploitation posters, Connery-era Bond posters to those from Poland, "pretty out there but highly original" he explains.

Luckily enough, designing them is his dayjob. After setting up an agency with a good friend, success saw them bought out by a larger agency. Paul now works on the sales art for a host of top releases including Melancholia, In The Loop, The Hurt Locker and Orphan.

It can be a glamourous life, there's been photo shoots with Kiera Knightley, Paddy Considine and Sienna Miller. "And we get to go to premieres and parties," says Paul, "or at least, blag our way in."

And he doesn't stop there. His DVD collection at home doesn't look like yours or mine. "I'd felt there were a few on the shelf that were missing a trick," the 31-year-old says, "so I started a redesign of a few of them."

When you "dream in RGB and CMYK", a quick trip to HMV or the like is never so simple. Does he find himself haunting the aisles, critiquing the covers on show?

"I do, and very often my own," he explains. "It's why I can't have my own artwork on my walls at home. I think about how I would have had it if the initial brief was different, or spot spot a bit of kerning or leading out of place, or how the version two rounds earlier had looked better.

"I'm pretty heavy on myself like that."

Thanks to his compulsion to create, he has lent his services to local regular pop-up cinema Screen 17, generating these stunning designs for recent Kids Film Club screenings.

"When we moved to Walthamstow, all signs pointed to a fantastic destination," explains Paul, originally from the Lake District. "Only after arriving was it pointed out there was no actual cinema in the borough! I saw some posters pinned round the village so went to see if they needed any help. I think what they're doing is great and I'm very happy to be involved."

Details: www.creative-output.co.uk, www.screen17.co.uk