This past fall I once again continued working with Switzerland's Filmpodium* program and their Retrospective Series; this time with them on two of their fall season programs (previous works were for their other retrospective programs: Gene Kelly, InselFilme/Island Films, The Real Eighties and Marilyn Monroe). The 2015 fall retrospective program was a focus on the life and works of Andrei Tarkovsky (the poster has his name in the German spelling); they had another one taking place at the same time on Sam Peckinpah.
*Filmpodium is the most important non commercial art house cinema in the German speaking part of Switzerland. It specializes in retrospectives on film history (directors, actors, genres, countries and all kinds of topics) and in non commercial art house films. Filmpodium collaborates closely with the Swiss film archive located in Lausanne and with other Cinemathèques around the world.
*Filmpodium is the most important non commercial art house cinema in the German speaking part of Switzerland. It specializes in retrospectives on film history (directors, actors, genres, countries and all kinds of topics) and in non commercial art house films. Filmpodium collaborates closely with the Swiss film archive located in Lausanne and with other Cinemathèques around the world.
The process of coming up with initial concept art for this poster, I created a balance on making drafts that showcased Tarkovsky himself and others that showcased the imagery of his films. Through the stages of reviewing these, it came to the conclusion that the iconic and striking images of his films were the way to go to making the poster. After finalizing the layout (the circle and the cropped images placed within it, along with the gray-blue backdrop), an explorat
After finalizing the layout (the choice of a large circle with various movie stills inserted within it, along wth the blue-grey backdrop), we did a round of versions, now focusing on the type of font. It came down to reviewing graphic design and typography of Russian culture, primarily, that of the 1970s. While not being able to isolate a specific/exclusive Russian font, there were some similarities found in the fonts pitched in the next round of edits.
In the end, we went with Biscuit Pro for the font.
Notes on the poster's imagery -- the four cropped images occupying the circle are from the following films:
Andrei Rublev (top left) | Solaris, from its movie poster (top right) | Stalker (bottom left) | The Mirror (bottom right)
Notes on the poster's imagery -- the four cropped images occupying the circle are from the following films:
Andrei Rublev (top left) | Solaris, from its movie poster (top right) | Stalker (bottom left) | The Mirror (bottom right)
From November to the end of December 2015, the program will take place. The poster can be seen in various public places within Zurich, Switzerland.
