Friday Five: Show Posters

One of the themes of the play I am directing, Dead Man's Cell Phone, is the way people interract through their phones rather than realistically and so their understanding of each other becomes skewed and depersonalised. In devising a poster to advertise the play, I wanted to spotlight the overload of impersonal information and intimate details and the way in which it is easy to become sucked into this heightened but depleted digital world. I didn't want any recognisable faces or features, other than possibly a hand which could belong to any body. These are my suggestions for what I had in mind.

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This is what the publicity department gave me.

I was recently listening to an interview with Ridley Scott in which he said that he strongly disliked the poster for Prometheus, because it actually contains a plot spoiler. He asked for it to be changed, but it remained because apparently the marketing department is more powerful than a director. Well, if they won't listen to Ridley, I can't really expect them to listen to me.

In the meantime, at least the poster is bright and should grab the attention, hopefully drawing people to come and see our wonderful production. And it also goes really well with the colours on a can of Bentspoke Crankshaft.

Friday Five: Calendars



Bamburgh Castle - Joe Cornish

A New Year means new calendars - I love calendars; great pictures that change every month for variety and colour in the corner of your office/ kitchen/ bathroom. Of course, they are functional for recording holidays, doctor appointments and Liverpool football matches (and mother's day - an important one that) but I reckon you can tell a lot about a person by their choice of calendar. The number I own is only limited by the available space I have to hang them. So you can make of this what you will, without further ado...

My 5 2013 Calendars:

1. One I made myself featuring photos I've taken over the past year of places I've been
2. Joe Cornish's Landscape Light - an annual gift from my sister of fabulous scenic photos of North East England with an unexpected perspective
3. The Chilterns in watercolour - I bought this when I was back in England; with pictures of Marlow, Henley,Cookham Dean, Hughenden Manor and Christmas Common, how could I refuse?
4. Railway Poster Art from the National Railway Museum collection - all the vibrant prints are designed to promote to travel to areas of Britain, such as Devon, North Wales or the Lake District - the one for the Yorkshire Dales boasts 'a land of narrow valleys and attractive villages, of heather-covered hills and moors, of ancient abbeys and castles, the principal dales are readily accessible by rail and form a holiday paradise for walkers, anglers and all who prefer the quiter place'.
5. London Underground Diary - yes, well done eagle-eyed readers; it's a diary, but it has got brilliant images of posters from the 1910s to the 1960s and 'interesting facts' about the tube - this week I learned that 'during peak hours more than 500 trains are in operation'.

Artwork by Ronald Lampitt