Image//Image FMP//Photographed posters.

Printed and photographs, my A2 borderless Black Swan film poster prints are ready for the module submission! Really happy that I managed to get into print this morning, and feel that I made the right decision in going for a borderless printed design, as I feel this is more representative of actual film posters.

Again, overall I am quite happy with my design outcomes, printed onto white cartridge paper to still effectively communicate the colours and gradients used, but still representing the textures used throughout. There are a few print blemishes which have frustrated me, but nothing I can do now unfortunately- just looking forward to this afternoon's hand in! 

Image//Image FMP//Final poster series.

My final x5 poster series for my self initiated image brief, proposing an illustrative re-design of film posters for the 2010 movie 'Black Swan' to engage contemporary cinema goers aged 18-30. Generally, I'm quite happy with the results, and really glad that I got to try something new in the way of experimenting more with gradients and textures, which is something that I would normally shy away from. 
Although that I feel the fifth design is too rushed for my liking, I am pleased that I managed to get my designs finished in such a short time frame, and now feel a lot more confident with my ability to produce work of a good standard in a narrow time period, and hope that it goes down well! Going to be in first thing in the morning to try and get them printed A2 size... really should have been more prepared and got this done sooner!

Image//Image FMP//Designing poster V.

Coming along to my fifth and final design, admittedly, getting a little tired now, and frustrated that I have left things until this late a stage. Although I am generally happy with the outcomes I have produced, I wish that I could have initially thought of this concept for my design development brief to have effectively made more way for experimentation with outcomes, particularly in terms of the design style and the printing methods used to produce the physical posters themselves.

This final poster, again, keeping to the use of gradients, greyscale and circular patterns used throughout my existing designs, I gave a Hitchcockian/Saul Bass-esque feel to the design with, once again, bold, silhouette cameo style illustrations, with the rotated balletic pose symbolising the fall from the stage that the central character, Nina takes at the end of the film, along with her schizophrenic descent into "becoming" the black swan. A simple design, though hopefully effective. 

My design process and thinking can be seen in the images below.

Image//Image FMP//Designing poster IV.

Definitely getting more into the design process and methods of experimentation through vector based illustration, I moved onto my fourth design out of the five-poster design series, and made sure that I would once again (as in the first poster design) use red, warm, autumnal tones, to ensure a balance was kept between the images, and with my intention to largely focus on using three basic colours: red, white, and black, of which I have, as shown, gone on to experiment and play around with in terms of tonal variation and gradients. 


Keeping with the spiral/circular theme, as I think this represents confusion/inner mind well, which suit the psychological themes of the film, as well as, the red in particular, representing the red circular blood stain that Nina has as a result of stabbing herself at the end of the film... *spoiler alert*. Again, I wanted to represent the balance between her performance as the white and the black swan, and used the graduated feather effect once more to represent this change and how the innocence of the white swan evolves into the darkness of the black swan.

My design process and thinking can be seen in the images below.

Image//Image FMP//Designing poster III.

Definitely making a move in the right direction, I feel quite happy with the pace that my designs are coming along, and the quality, in my mind, is okay- the consistency of the vector-based silhouettes working well together, and still remaining faithful to the visually grainy, dark style throughout the cinematography of the film.

Originally in this design, I had planned to have the entire silhouette image made up of feathers, and for the black feathers to float off into the air, though I found sticking to the strong cameo-like silhouette was far more effective.

I am quite fond of the gradients in this image, I think that the vignette and spotlight effects work well to capture the theatrical and stage core of the design. 

My design process and thinking can be seen in the images below.

Image//Image FMP//Designing poster II.

Moving along to the second image in my poster series, I wanted to ensure that I kept some of the visual themes and elements of my initial poster design, to keep a visual consistency and "brand" style between the posters, but to also make them be able to stand alone with their own conceptual development and design factors such as colours, gradients, textures, and overall content.


In this design, I was inspired by the final scene of the film in which the central character, Nina Sayers, jumps from the stage to a white fade out, as she reaches the climax of her schizophrenic state (in which she believes she is turning into the black swan). I used the silhouette of the ballerina within a spiral to represent the descent of madness, with the circle of feathers around the circle in a light %- dark % gradient, again, representing, the graduation of her personality change as she evolves into the black swan. 


I added the grainy texture and the black, grey and white colour palette to represent the grainy, dark cinematography and lighting used throughout the film (and in the majority of the director, Darren Aronofsky's filmography).


Quite happy with this design (big step for me- I'm my own worst critic at the best of times!), I think it represents the themes of the film well whilst still remaining conceptual and unique.

My design process and thinking can be seen in the images below.

Image//Image FMP//Designing poster I.

Finally making a real start on my design process and poster making! After jotting a few ideas down in my sketchbooks, I felt happy with some of the conceptual developments and ideas I had.
The "major" concept that I want to portray within my series is the evolution and change that the central character, Nina, has in "becoming" the black swan, from her original innocence and naivety of the white swan character. 
With my survey results, I found that white, black, and red were believed to be the colours most commonly associated with the film, and felt that these would work well to create a bold and dramatic effect. 


Looking at past designs I have created, particularly my editorial designs (as shown below), I was really keen to develop my skills in the way of using gradients and textures, and felt that this would be very appropriate to my dark subject matter. 


I decided to work with the repetitive balletic silhouette image to show the descent from the white to the black swan through gradients.


I'm quite happy with the design, definite room for improvement, but a good start- I'm looking forward to working on my next designs for the series!

My design process and thinking can be seen in the images below.

Image//Image FMP//Colours associated with Black Swan.

Selecting colours from screen grabs from throughout the film, I have narrowed down a selective, minimal colour palette to work with for my own poster design series. Baring the past survey results in mind, I decided to stick with the four most commonly associated, and used, colours throughout the film- which was purposefully cinematic in terms of the moodiness and graininess of the overall image.


The main colours I have chosen to work with (with gradient tonal variations available to use) are:


#FCF9F7 (white/cream)
#BFBDC5 (grey)
#931C1D (red)
#0A0F0B (black)

Image//Image FMP//Black Swan doodles.

Starting to generate some early design drawings (hand rendered) to develop some sort of inspiration and direction for my Black Swan poster outcomes. I have been looking at the basics to start with, and the simplest forms of visual communication- with silhouettes of swans, balletic poses and movements, and beginning to look at simple typography and how this can effectively be utilised. 
Still a great deal of experimentation to go, but it's been fun to work with a more tactile, hand-rendered style, something that I don't get a great deal of time to usually do.