Film Season Posters

These are my final designs for my art house film season "CONTRA". The season celebrates the work of Julian Schnabel, who has spent his life pushing the limits of painting and crossing artistic boundaries as an award-winning film maker. 

Basquiat (1997)

Before Night Falls (2000)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

Miral (2010)

Contra Film Festival

CONTRA.

Over summer, we have been given a brief in which I have to design and promote an Art House film festival. I've chosen four films, all from the director Julian Schnabel; "Basquiat", "Before Night Falls", "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and "Miral".

I have long-appreciated the movie "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and so it seemed the right choice to want to develop my knowledge of the director further. I discovered that Schnabel originally made his name as a neo-expressionist painter in the 1980s, and was highly acclaimed. However like many artists, his work was deemed very controversial also. This is how I came up with the title of the festival: CONTRA. It comes from the latin for "against" or "anti", and each of the movies portrays very tragic stories of gifted figures who have lived / are living flawed lives. Each of the protagonists are in a fight against the environments they are living in, be it physical incapacity, an oppressive dictatorship regime, drugs or poverty.


Adding to this, Schnabel became famous for his "plate paintings"; which he created by applying paint and layers of texture onto broken crockery. His work reflects the mosaic styles of  Gaudi; abstract, bold and colourful and, like the artist himself, very extravagant . Despite winning Academy Awards for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and receiving high acclaim for his directing role on all of the films, Schnabel affirms that he is primarily a painter, and that directing is more of a side project than a career. For this reason, I want to showcase elements of his artwork into the film festival also, maintaining his style and eccentricity in the designs I create. It will be difficult for me to distinguish between the tragic nature of the films, and his more extravagant painting style, but I feel this will be an interesting approach to the brief.


Here are my very first designs to promote the festival; a LOT more work needs to be done as I don't feel they are well considered enough just yet but I'm quite pleased with where they are going.

 

London Film Festival

I discovered these beautiful poster designs from the British Film Institute's archives, designed for the annual London Film Festival. The festival has run since 1957 to the present date, and some of the posters are really interesting. Although some of the posters are somewhat aesthetically garish, a few really caught my eye - especially the earlier dated posters from the archive. It is a shame that many of the more recent posters lack the simplicity that many of the older ones achieve successfully. It has to be said that, when it comes to design, often less is more.

This year's festival will be held in London from the 13th until the 28th of October, for more info click here.

Couceiro and Matter.

I discovered the work of Cristiana Couceiro during my second year at MMU. Her work is so dynamic; a fusion of the old and new, in a bold and exciting way. One of the pieces that really caught my attention was her poster design for the documentary film "The Visual Language of Herbert Matter". 

The film is a revealing look at the fascinating life story of the highly influential mid-century modern design master. Known as a quintessential designer's designer, Swiss born Herbert Matter is largely credited with expanding the use of photography as a design tool and bringing the semantics of fine art into the realm of applied arts. 

 In today's commercialized and oversaturated world, the documentary directed by Reto Caduff ("Charlie Haden - Rambling Boy", "A Crude Awakening") lets us see why Matter still matters. Through never-before-seen footage, personal photography and stunning graphic design work, the film explores the social and cultural impact of his personal visual langauge that influenced a whole generation of designer and artists.

I really can't wait to watch this film, due to come out later this year! Check out this teaser:

Matter Teaser from Herbert Matter on Vimeo.