MinaLima Design

Company logo

"At MinaLima we are intrigued and enchanted by all things graphic. It’s our passion. We aim to be less than conventional and much more than ordinary."

— Portion of the blurb from MinaLima Design's website

MinaLima Design is a graphic design company that produces props such as book covers, posters, and other graphical elements for various films, including the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts film series.

History

Though the actual company has only existed since 2010, founders Eduardo Lima and Miraphora Mina have worked together since 2002, and the company's filmography credits work dating back to 1995. Mina has been involved with the Harry Potter franchise since the first film, and Lima since the third film.

Quidditch World Cup poster from the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Responsible for creating all the graphic design elements for the films, including Quidditch World Cup posters, the Marauder's Map, the Daily Prophet, the Quibbler, and hundreds of boxes and labels for items sold at Honeydukes and Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, MinaLima's area at Leavesden Studios has been called "J.K. Rowling's favourite room on Earth."

In 2012, the company launched The Printorium, a site for purchasing high quality reproductions of some of MinaLima's graphic props created for the Harry Potter series. Currently offered props include the Marauder's Map from Prisoner of Azkaban, the "Magic in 3D" issue of The Quibbler from Half-Blood Prince, and the "Harry Potter: Undesirable No. 1" issue of the Daily Prophet from Deathly Hallows: Part 1.

The Graphic Art of the Harry Potter Films London exhibition poster

In 2015, The Coningsby Gallery in London held The Graphic Art of the Harry Potter Films exhibition from 30 November, to 19 December which featured many prints designed for the films as well as props designed by MinaLima on loan from The Making of Harry Potter studio tour.

The 'House of MinaLima' exhibition opened at 26 Greek Street in London's West End on 3 June 2016 and features the design teams many graphic design prints from the iconic Daily Prophet and Marauder's Map to lesser known art for Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes products such as the Bang Bang Boggart Banger and Decoy Detonator, as well as props they designed on loan from The Making of Harry Potter studio tour. Free and open to the public, it is located around the corner from the Palace Theatre where Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is staged and runs through the beginning of 2017.

MinaLima have also recently worked on the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them films at the Fantastic Beasts Art Department in Leavesden. Eduardo and Miraphora have stated that they have collected many 1920s ephemera wherever they have gone, including vintage American posters from the era. They have plastered the wall with many of them, and stated that working on the films have made them favour the twenties.

In September 2016, MinaLima released three covers for the new Pottermore Presents eBook series.

The Chupacabra Antonio in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - The Original Screenplay

In 2016 and 2018, MinaLima provided both the cover art and chapter art for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - The Original Screenplay.

In 2020, MinaLima Design released a new print of Dobby expanding on their "Magical Moments" series highlighting iconic scenes from the Harry Potter films.

Aside from the Harry Potter series and related work such as creating prop replicas for Harry Potter Film Wizardry, MinaLima Design has worked on such films as The Golden Compass, Sweeney Todd, and A Fantastic Fear of Everything. The company has also taken up non-film work on occasion, such as providing illustrations and cover design for a 2012 collector's edition of Wreck and Sinking of the Titanic, and illustrated editions of several classic novels including Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass, The Jungle Book, and The Secret Garden.

In 2024, they revealed they were not given a license to illustrate Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Behind the scenes

MinaLima's cover design of the Empire November 2018 issue, published on 4 October 2018

• MinaLima worked on the Exclusive Subscriber Cover for Empire magazine published on 4 October, 2018. For the then-upcoming release of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, this particular issue features interviews with the cast and director David Yates about the instalment, but also includes interviews with Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuaron, and Mike Newell about the Harry Potter films.

External links

• MinaLima Design's official website
• MinaLima Design's official Facebook
• MinaLima Design's official Twitter

See also

• Ruth Winick