Theatre Posters
A series of three posters designed to promote productions of Shakespeare plays, and a front cover for an accompanying special edition production program.
A series of three posters designed to promote productions of Shakespeare plays, and a front cover for an accompanying special edition production program.
For this brief I was required to design three A2 posters to promote productions of Shakespeare plays. Having covered these plays during my English Literature A Level, I was very familiar with the themes and symbolism in each play. From the outset I felt strongly that I should portray the main themes and symbolism from each play through my imagery.
I have used a grayscale colour scheme for all three posters, with limited use of colour. The only things that carry any colour are the things in the posters that I feel symbolize the themes of the plays, and having them in colour makes them even more prominent to the viewer.
King Lear
Two of the main themes in King Lear are betrayal and blindness. In order to communicate these themes through my poster, I have photographed the shadows of outstretched hands and placed them behind a model. This figure is facing away from the shadow hands, the reason for this being to show that in the play King Lear is oblivious to the evil and malicious acts of other characters behind his back. This portrays the theme of blindness. The shadow hands are reaching for the crown as in the play there are characters who want to take power from King Lear. However, as all of these characters meet destruction and death when the power is achieved, I have made the crown out of cardboard to symbolize that the power they vie for is in fact useless.
Romeo & Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is essentially a love story as well as a tragedy. Two of the main themes in the play are the forcefulness of love and love as a cause of violence. In my imagery I have photographed a fist clenched around the stem of a rose, with blood pouring from the hand as the thorns of the rose have clearly pierced the skin. I feel this portrays both of the themes mentioned previously. In the play Romeo and Juliet cling so tightly to each other's love, but the result of this is violence and death, which is what the blood symbolizes.
Hamlet
The Hamlet poster is the only one for which I have used a scene from the play in question for my imagery. The sinister expression of Hamlet's face is seen behind a torn, bloody curtain. In this scene, Hamlet is hidden behind a curtain while eavesdropping on a conversation of two other characters. When he hears something he does not like and becomes enraged, he draws his sword and slashes through the curtain, slaying the character on the other side. Violence is rife in the play, and this is symbolized on the poster by the heavy blood stains. Suspicion is also a prominent theme in the play, and this is why I felt this scene would work effectively on my poster as a way to symbolize this theme of suspicion.
I have used a grayscale colour scheme for all three posters, with limited use of colour. The only things that carry any colour are the things in the posters that I feel symbolize the themes of the plays, and having them in colour makes them even more prominent to the viewer.
King Lear
Two of the main themes in King Lear are betrayal and blindness. In order to communicate these themes through my poster, I have photographed the shadows of outstretched hands and placed them behind a model. This figure is facing away from the shadow hands, the reason for this being to show that in the play King Lear is oblivious to the evil and malicious acts of other characters behind his back. This portrays the theme of blindness. The shadow hands are reaching for the crown as in the play there are characters who want to take power from King Lear. However, as all of these characters meet destruction and death when the power is achieved, I have made the crown out of cardboard to symbolize that the power they vie for is in fact useless.
Romeo & Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is essentially a love story as well as a tragedy. Two of the main themes in the play are the forcefulness of love and love as a cause of violence. In my imagery I have photographed a fist clenched around the stem of a rose, with blood pouring from the hand as the thorns of the rose have clearly pierced the skin. I feel this portrays both of the themes mentioned previously. In the play Romeo and Juliet cling so tightly to each other's love, but the result of this is violence and death, which is what the blood symbolizes.
Hamlet
The Hamlet poster is the only one for which I have used a scene from the play in question for my imagery. The sinister expression of Hamlet's face is seen behind a torn, bloody curtain. In this scene, Hamlet is hidden behind a curtain while eavesdropping on a conversation of two other characters. When he hears something he does not like and becomes enraged, he draws his sword and slashes through the curtain, slaying the character on the other side. Violence is rife in the play, and this is symbolized on the poster by the heavy blood stains. Suspicion is also a prominent theme in the play, and this is why I felt this scene would work effectively on my poster as a way to symbolize this theme of suspicion.
Book Cover
I was required to design a cover for a special edition production program for one of my plays, and chose to design this for King Lear as I felt the shadow hands could be used to effectively create strong imagery.
