OBJECTIVE

Design a set of postcards with the purpose of promoting a specific play. The postcards are intended to be mailed out over several weeks before the opening show. The postcards must include abstract photography to portray the play’s themes. The subject matter of the photography should be as abstract as possible in the final product. The postcard fronts must show a system that can either be related to the play itself or based on an established aesthetic style but must still be able to relate to the back.

PROCESS

William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, is a tragedy about two young star-crossed lovers from rival feuding families, the House of Montague and the House of Capulet. The conflict between the two families is resolved upon being informed of the deaths of the two lovers. The play focuses on themes of love, tension, and death. The color, type, and shape choices further communicates these themes while creating a thorough system. 

The color system used in the postcards represents the thematic progression of the play itself. The first postcard is in light pink and low contrast to signify the early attraction of the two main characters, which transitions to a pure red and higher contrasted image to represent the rising conflict of the two families, and then finally to a high contrast dark blood red image to indicate the death of the two star-crossed lovers and the eventual peace experienced by all major characters in the play. I wanted to create abstract environments so I took photographs of random items that had a texture that supports the play’s themes and distorted the shape and changed the colors to the point that it is no longer recognizable as its original image. This resulted in a truly abstract and thematic photo that either uses swirling, sharp cutting, or layered imagery while preserving the original textures and light sources.

This project also features a video component. The video uses textures and colors from the postcards and animation techniques to support the narrative and system established in the postcards. Shots of a rose, smoke textures, and wine foreshadows the progression of the play.