The Ephemera of Guybrush Threepwood is a project that initially resulted from my interest in Graphic Design for Filmmaking and the creation of props.

Set in the golden age of piracy the classic adventure game Monkey Island: LeChuck’s Revenge (1991) follows the aspiring pirate Guybrush Threepwood on his adventures on the fictitious Tri-Island area. On his travels Guybrush collects a variety of different objects, which he carries around with him and engages with. My goal for this project was to reimagine Guybrush Threepwood’s inventory as historically accurate as possible using the 8bit graphics and the in-game descriptions of the objects as a starting point.

While exploring the narrative of Monkey Island: LeChuck’s Revenge, I invested a lot of time researching ephemera of the early 18th century. All design decisions such as layout, lettering techniques, choice of type and material were based on this research.
After gathering enough references, I started with the planning and making of the actual artefacts. Each design started out with initial sketches and handmade lettering – digital printing was used for layouts that would have been printed through engravings, woodblocks or letterpress. Elements such as calligraphy, rubber stamping and sealing were all added by hand in the final run of the production process.

I designed a wax seal and rubber stamp for this project which was used on all artefacts that were issued by the Official Island State of Phatt Island. In order to tint and texturise the paper I have worked with, all props have gone through a process of tea- and whatever-other-liquids-I-could-find-staining.