I was commissioned by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to create a series of typographic posters. The posters were to be given to the film-makers at the Oscars ceremony, and exhibited online. I was given the task of creating posters to celebrate the Short Film categories: Live Action, Animated & Documentary. 

SKETCH

After exploring various options, I came up with the idea of creating some pieces by hand, using type printed on acetate, then manipulated and photographed, before being composited in Photoshop around the Oscars statue. I thought it would be cool to have the type cropped so it was bursting out of the frame, perhaps reflecting the nature of short films... snappy, punchy, full of life.

I also sent the client some rough type treatments to show the process a little. This was a new approach for me so I also thought it wise to see how it might work at this early stage.

The client loved this approach, so I got to work. First I created the static type in Illustrator, to be printed on acetate. I wanted to be able to play with the type physically while still keeping it legible, so I designed the type with elongated sections that could be looped, twisted and folded.

Next I composed the acetate prints in various interesting ways and shot them using a Nikon D80. Fiddly.

Once I had a good amount of quality shots of the acetate type, I imported the images to Photoshop and stripped them back until just the type remained.

It was then time to integrate the type with the Oscars statue graphic, used as a base for each poster composition. I played extensively with different layouts and colourways until arriving at the strongest pieces. 

I loved working on this - so much fun combining analogue + digital. 

Thanks to Ford at The Oscars and my agent Kat at Snyder. 

Cheers - Charles