Denver, CO United States – 1927 -1992

American commercial illustrator best known for innovative design in the development of the modern movie poster.

His artwork has been on the cover of Time magazine, TV Guide, and Sports Illustrated. He also illustrated advertisements and U.S. postage stamps.

Bob Peak was born in Denver, Colorado and grew up in Wichita, Kansas. Growing up he always knew he wanted to be a commerical illustrator even though he majored in geology from Wichita State University. He got a part-time job in the art department of McCormick-Armstrong. Following him serving in the military during the Korean War, Peak later transferred to the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, California. He graduated in 1951.

Two years after graduationg he moved to New York City and was commisioned to do an Old Hickory Whiskey advertising campaign which would go on to appear in major advertising and national magazines.

United Artists studio hired Peak in 1961 to design the poster images for the film West Side Story. The success of Peak’s work on that film led to work on posters for designer Bill Gold, including the big-budget musicals My Fair Lady and Camelot. In the mid-1970s Peak’s style would become familiar to fans of science fiction films when he created the poster art for the futuristic filmRollerball (1975), which was followed by the first five Star Trek films, Superman (1978), Excalibur (1981), both Derek Flint films, Apocalypse Now (1979), The Spy Who Loved Me and other James Bond concepts.[2] By the 1980s only the movie poster artist Drew Struzan was in as much demand by film directors.

Peak received a commission from the U.S. Postal Service to design 30 stamps for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.