The project aims to design promotional posters that capture the
essence of the abstract and captivating operas in The Portrait
Trilogy, created by renowned American minimalist composer Philip
Glass. Each opera in the series, namely Satyagraha, Akhnaten, and
Einstein on the Beach, portrays the lives of historically
significant figures who have made profound impacts in the realms of
politics, religion, and science. The posters will strive to visually
convey the essence and intrigue of these operatic works.
Project Goals
Visualising Sound
This project utilize Processing to visualize the soundtrack of
each of the opera to create unique graphic pattern. These are
the central elements of these compositions.
Poetic Rhythms
Glass is know for his repeating and pulsing atonal sound that
echoes and transform over time. The composition should reflect
this pattern in the music.
Lyrically Dense
Each opera's libretto reflects the ideology and cultural context
of each historical figures. Each poster should embrace these
lyrical and apply them to the composition and creating layered
meanings.
The journey
The process
The design process started with researching each piece of work
carefully. Phillip Glass is known for his meditative and hypnotic
patterns that sounds abstract mathematically experimental.
The typography of the series is also mainly inspired by movie
posters of the 70s, the period of time where most of the Portrait
trilogy was composed in. A serif typeface was tell a story that is
classic and timeless.
The color dark scheme is inspired by sci-fi book covers. This is
to reminds the viewer of the epic journeys that these historic
figures went through, as well as the romantic soundscape of each
of the operas.
Akhnaten tells the story of the forgotten Egyptian Pharaoh
Akhnaten and his religious conviction. The three-act opera tells
the story of how Akhnaten rise to power and his vision of a
monotheistic religion worshipping the Sun God. The poster layout's
echoes the triangular shape of a pyramid and focus the composition
on the circular form of the radiating sun. One of the opera's most
signature scene (by the MET production) —featuring the pharaoh
ascending on a stair in communion with his god-is also represented
in the poster. As his act defies the priesthood of Egypt, his name
is cross out from the tombs of ancient Egypt, which is also
reflected in the typography of the tile in the poster.
Satyagraha is the journey of one Mahatma Gandhi and his
influential political movement that eventually led to the
liberation of India. The poster reflects the cultural context of
these events: from the three thousand different social castes that
divide India's cultural and social landscape, to the influence of
imperial Britain cascading to the complex layers of society. This
is represented by the three concentric rings in the composition.
The opera also employ liberal use of puppetry and hanging props,
which is reflected by the many string-like strokes that span
across the composition.
Einstein on the Beach is the first piece of the Portrait
trilogy that Glass wrote. This four-hour long opera reflect on the
lives of genius physicist Albert Einstein and his contribution to
the science. The poster reflect this very abstract and non-linear
narrative by using a circular motifs that appear in one of the
last scenes in the opera. The two main rectangular elements not
only echo one the most signature scene in the opera. They also
symbolise the two atomic bombs that dropped on Japan by the U.S,
which is an important motif in the staging of the opera. The
typography also play with this idea of the two diagonal strokes
with diagonal italic text elements and thin strokes that are
sprinkled throughout the typographic lock-up.
The Conclusion
This project was a lot of fun for me as it offered me the chance to
experiment with Processing and Illustration. I am really pleased
with end result as the Portrait trilogy is one of my favorite
collection of music and theatric staging.
