Opera Poster
Giacomo Puccini's Turandot
To begin this project, I started researching the opera Turandot. I read the story and watched some of the opera on YouTube as well as researched the visual aspects of the show. This included costume design, set design, previous posters, and advertisements. I also dove into the prominent themes: accepting challenge, love, and revenge. One of the most important scenes in the show occurs when Turandot, a Chinese princess, asks her suitor three riddles in order to accept his hand in marriage. Turandot is a ruthless and independent woman who doesn't want to get married, if her suitor answered any of the riddles wrong she beheaded him. Many of my original concepts were based on the three riddles as well as female strength and independence. I wanted my poster to feel as intense and strong as the princess while also being ruthlessly elegant and beautiful. I ended up hating my three poster roughs displayed below simply because they didn't convey the feeling of intensity I wanted them to. I went back to the drawing board and sketched out the three women seen on the final poster, giving them more expression and dark fluidity, as they represent the three riddles in the opera. Many of the posters on my moodboard had hand drawn text, so I created the Turandot lettering pulling inspiration from the symmetry and grid-like structure of Chinese characters.
First draft poster concepts
Turandot moodboard
Original concept sketches and research
