The second in our series of self-initiated projects is Medea, the ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides. On this shoot myself and photographer Helen Maybanks were joined by the talented Diana Estrada Hudson, who did a great job on our model’s hair and makeup.
Helen shot with long exposure using rear curtain flash. The resulting images captured our model in two positions – a starting pose and a final pose – with a certain amount of motion blur in between. Thematically the images could suggest duality, internal conflict or indecision, or different aspects of a personality – all appropriate themes for Medea.
There was one portrait in particular that Helen and I liked, and I decided to turn it into three different posters. The first very much uses the image untreated – this one was a case of designing a nice title treatment to go with it. The typeface used is Alternate Gothic, which although over a hundred years old still manages to look very contemporary – I use it all the time for headings. Here I added a cracked texture to suggest tension and drama, and a blur effect in the background which references the blurring in the image. The red colour references the violence and revenge themes of the plot, and also contrasts nicely with the dark blue of our model’s outfit.
For the second poster design I wanted to bring in some texture in the form of blood spatter (Medea is a very bloody story!) and to look at how I could overlay this onto the image. It adds energy and movement to the design, and creates interesting shapes where it overlaps the main image. The typeface here is Triplex Condensed, which I chose for it’s slightly curved ‘M’ and ‘A’ characters which bookend the main title. I also used a blending effect for the title so that some of the texture behind it shows through.
For the final design I wanted to try something completely stripped back, using just three colours – red, white and black – with one colour for the image, one for the typography and one for the background. The result is quite retro and reminiscent of 70s horror movie posters, the image becoming quite ghostly looking with all the colour removed and the contrast increased. To steer into this aesthetic I decided to use Avant Garde Gothic for the typography, a design classic from the 70s. The typeface is fun to use because it includes dozens of stylistic alternate characters, and I used two of these for the ‘M’ and ‘A’ of the main title, to add a bit of drama.
This project was great for trying out a couple of new things, and for demonstrating the different routes that can be taken with the same image.