While editing Birdman, director Alejandro González Iñárritu discovered Mexican artist Julio Ruelas’s 1906 etching, Criticism. Captivated by the image, he showed it to designer Dawn Baillie as a possible source of inspiration for the payoff poster. Her job was to direct her team to create a modern take on the concept that fit with the psychological trajectory of the film. An in-house digital illustrator reinterpreted Ruelas’s composition through the lens of classic 1980s superhero comics, bringing a nostalgic air to the dark internal issues plaguing Michael Keaton’s character. Like the film, the resulting image is both humorous and introspective. The project actually began as the concept for the poster within the film for the fictitious Birdman trilogy in which Keaton’s character had starred in his youth. This image is the teaser poster. The typography is based on the opening credits that BLT also designed for the movie. As many of these elements are produced simultaneously, finding such moments of visual cohesion serves to establish a clear, marketable identity for a production.