Design Practice Blog: OUGD406 Design Practice

Brief notes:

Alternate movie poster for film starring Bruce Willis

A4 Portrait

2 colours + stock

My given film was Perfect Stranger

A journalist goes undercover to ferret out businessman Harrison Hill as her childhood friend's killer. Posing as one of his temps, she enters into a game of online cat-and-mouse. (IMDb)

Rowena Price is a muckraking reporter for a New York paper. When her story about a closeted gay Senator who preaches family values is spiked, she quits and soon finds herself investigating the grisly murder of a childhood friend. Her friend had been dumped by ad exec Harrison Hill, so he's Rowena's prime suspect. Rowena gets a job at the ad agency as a temp, and she's soon the object of Hill's attentions. She's helped in her subterfuge by Miles Haley, a friend at the paper who has a secret thing for her. Everyone, it seems, has secrets, including Hill, who must keep his affairs from his wife - her money fuels his lifestyle. Murder will out? (IMDb)

There are no existing alternate movie posters for this film, surprisingly.

AMPs:

I firstly watched the film for the first time, then secondly re-watched it while making notes.

Notes

Atropa Belladonna or Deadly nightshade:

Stills from the film:

Eye imagery is used in the introduction.

Witnessing a murder.

Another eye.

Another witness of a murder.

Photography of dilated pupils created by using belladonna.
This scene in the film also is the point when the murderer is discovered as having access to belladonna.

Quotes

What a poster needs

The film is not popular enough for an audience to understand minimal references, like them seen in the majority of AMPs. The function of the poster in the context briefed is to be visually appealing, so appearance is key.

Visuals derived from film plot.

Focus on Deadly nightshade, the drug used as murder weapon.

Deadly nightshade dilates pupils.

Initial concepts for crit:
Belladonna (deadly nightshade) Illustration
Pupil dilated imagery

Depiction from film of witnessing murder.

Feedback from crit.

Best Feedback:

Plant concept is the strongest.

Look at the Victorian botanical books.

Avoid using chemical symbols as you have used them in a past brief.

An illustration with all aspects of the plant, e.g using figure 1.

Layout ideas.

Typeface considerations.

Off white/ brown paper adds to plant illustration.

Botanical Illustrations:

Key inspiration:

Chelsea Flower Show 2013 Branding by David Davidopoulos

Visuals I had decided on:

Atropa Belladonna (deadly nightshade)

Hallucinogenic

A 'Cover up'

Serif typeface creates greater visuals when behind half tone

Botanical Illustrations.

Experiments and production:

Negatives:

Final:

I printed with a neon green to portray not only the obvious green plant but hallucinogenics.
I hadn't considered this as I was producing digitally but
I believe the use of a colour that cannot be created digitally printed adds to charm of a screen print.

Crit Feedback:

'Looks on-trend' - surely in this context of exhibition, a on trend piece will be justified. This is not a design to last.

'Make text and plant image smaller while increasing type' :

I had to explain that the frame of type around the image represents the framing of a stranger within the film.

The distortion of 'PERFECT STRANGER' represents the hallucinogenic quality of Atropa belladonna.

The neon green too represents the hallucinogenic qualities as well as a charm only screen printing can produce.

The hyphenation is not needed and I don't really know why I ever put it in the design.

I have edited the print and think this is a better outcome.
The cast names are not necessary however do not make it look like a stereotypical film poster, but that wasn't a mandatory requirement?