Christopher Hobbs-Massou
Our brief for the second poster in Design 101 was to create a movie poster inspired by themes from our chosen haiku.
I decided to focus in on the defiant and casual nature of my chosen haiku, by Moriya Senan. I wanted this poster to represent an ever so slightly surreal, dark dramadey. The story of an eccentric.
My Way
8/4/2020
first wire frames showing the placement of elements
As with the last poster, the process began with sketch work done in the studio session for Design 101. We started with wire framing. Wire framing is a technique used to mock-up a piece of visual design at the structural level, by placing simple elements on a page. In this process, I mocked up a series of ideas I had for different posters, and started working with an image of a cask or barrel, falling through space.
My initial sketch looked much like this. Which was the copy used to scan.
The next step was to sketch up a base image on paper, which I then scanned and placed in Adobe Illustrator. This allowed me to convert the drawn lines to vector images and separate them out into component parts. These were then imported into Photoshop (a little convoluted I know) and I could colour and adjust the shapes more freely. I decided to work with a simple colour palette, red and black or white, as I felt that strong contrast
represented my chosen themes. Red being inspired by the wine from Senan's Poem, and the blood of death and dying. Black and white being social monotones, from which the core themes stand out.
In the adjacent slides you can see a few of the various combinations where I played with weight, scale and the distribution of textual elements in order to
experiment with a sense of
balance across the image.
I was able to produce some images that I was relatively happy with, but ultimately the poster didn't feel like it connected strongly enough to my chosen haiku and themes. So I decided to focus on the elements I wanted to communicate; A nonchalant, even casual view of death, as well as independence from, and opposition to, conventional ways of living, dying and thinking. I began sketching up a base image to work with once again.
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For this redesign, the general process remained the same, however I made a decision to go more literal with the representation of themes. You'll notice that it comes from one of my original sketches from the Des 101 studio session. To personify independence, I used a figure running uphill, arms outstretched. The outstretched arms is a very particular detail too, though is might seem obvious at first, this posture is an innate (not learned) human behaviour, associated with victory or jubilation. (Yong, E. 2008, August 13). So it was a natural choice to use it to signify a character who embodies a free independence from the oppressive constraints of normalcy.
Other small details include the Kanji text, which is the name of the author of my chosen Haiku, Moriya Senan. In the original poster this was a much larger element, but I wanted to keep it around as a sort of easter egg type detail. (as the inspiration, he deserves some credit!)
The figures at the bottom of this movie poster are meant to be two things. First, a manifestation of the aforementioned normalcy. Second, an introduction of low - key comic elements, (you can see a stop sign and a spatula amongst the mob) I wanted this to be a surreal dramadey, after all!
I stuck with the original colour palette, as I felt it still brought relevance to the movie poster design. Red being independence, and the relationship between life and death. The contrasting black and white represent the same social monotones, with the central figure escaping from them.
Finally I'll mention the 'mortal dissolution'. The bits floating away are certainly a metaphor for death, but in Senan-style, this is all taken in stride, it's just part of life.
#Design101 #DesignUoA
Cited Works and Sources:
Yong, E. (2008, August 13). Blind Olympic athletes show the universal nature of pride and shame. Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/phenomena/2008/08/13/blind-olympic-athletes-show-the-universal-nature-of-pride-and-shame/
Senan, M. (2018, January 21). Bury me when I die beneath a wine barrel in a tavern. With luck, the cask will leak. Retrieved April 2, 2020, from https://dearhankandjohnshortpoems.tumblr.com/post/169967144658/bury-me-when-i-die-beneath-a-wine-barrel-in-a