WKWSCI

Perspectives
Film Festival

Industry

Film, Events

Art Direction, Print & Merchandise Design

The fourteenth edition of Perspectives Film Festival: Breakthroughs in Cinema presents: WHAT THE __?!

As a member of the Design & IT Team that year, I worked with the team in developing and conceptualising the art direction for the 14th edition of PFF. Seeking to explore the unconventional and create conversations around unorthodox films, we were presented with an unusual theme from the film programming committee: ‘What The __?!’.

The PROCESS

Exploring different styles to represent the unconventional theme, the team wanted to create an art direction that would elicit a reaction true to our theme — what the?! Something edgy, different, organic, and almost out-of-place.

After numerous brainstorm sessions, design pitches from each member and several iterations, we settled on a mad scientist motif as the leading lady to that year's festival. Taking inspiration from the Dada art movement, we created a gritty look with elements such as handwritten text, rough brush strokes and sharp-edged paper cuts, against a neutral colour palette supported by accents of bright orange and blue — contrasting the bright and cheery against the dark and eerie.

the print

While we were all involved throughout the various design processes, I took charge of the print designs and led the design process for a bulk of the festival materials, including the main festival poster, festival merchandise, event booklet and collaterals for ancillary events.

This was a bit of a learning curve for me, but I quickly got the hang of the processes that go behind preparing print-ready files, including colour profiles, printer marks and bleeds, blending modes and even preparing die-cut lies.

Designing the merch was also an exciting process. Though due to timeline and logistical reasons, my designs ultimately could not be printed, I still enjoyed the process of designing a line of merch around our theme.