Orison theater
client: reza sadeghnia
TASK: POSTER DESIGN
TIME: JUNARY 2023
about project
Theater is my favorite genre in poster design. Maybe even my favorite genre in all of graphic design. It’s a place where ideas can be expressed in so many different ways.
This past July (1402), a friend of mine who was directing a play asked me to design the poster for it.
The play “Orison” by Spanish playwright Fernando Arrabal, which had great potential for experimenting with different ideas, was about to go on stage, and this was an opportunity to create a poster.
After seeing the play and hearing their explanations, I expanded on an idea that I had had from the very beginning.
The Absurd Theater: A Sketch
The play unfolded in an absurd space, a stark reflection of the inherent meaninglessness of human existence. To capture the essence of this theme, I quickly sketched the stage setting.
Elements:
A Coffin: Suspended in the center of the stage, between two ropes, the coffin served as a stark symbol of death, the inevitable end of human existence.
Two Ropes: One rope was too short to serve its intended purpose, while the other was excessively long. Both ropes, like the characters on stage, were devoid of any inherent meaning.
Interpretation:
The juxtaposition of the coffin and the ropes highlighted the futility of human struggles and the absurdity of life itself. The ropes, despite their intended function, were rendered useless, much like human efforts in the face of an indifferent universe. The coffin, as a symbol of death, served as a constant reminder of the inevitable end, casting a shadow of meaninglessness over the entire scene.
"god is dead"
Friedrich Nietzsche, the renowned 19th-century German philosopher, famously declared, “God is dead.” This proclamation of God’s demise holds profound significance, marking the loss of an element that has long imbued human existence with meaning. Interpreters argue that Nietzsche’s intent was not to prove or disprove God’s metaphysical existence but rather to serve as a stark warning to humanity teetering on the precipice of nihilism.
Inspired by the theatrical style and the underlying concepts, which undoubtedly drew upon the ideas of Nietzsche, one of the most influential thinkers, I sought to confront the poster’s audience with the era Nietzsche alluded to – an era marked by the death of God and the subsequent demise of meaning and purpose.
:picture
cross the
blood the
Noose the
coffin the
I focused on these four visual elements. I thought the coffin was a good symbol for death; death with meaning. But it wasn’t enough. Because death can also have an end and a meaning. So I removed the wood behind the coffin. A coffin that is called a coffin but does not work. Empty and meaningless. It will not accept any dead person and we don’t really know if it can still be called a coffin. And finally, the Nietzschean concept of the matter: the death of God. I hung a cross on the gallows from which, according to the Bible, the blood of God flowed.
:text
cross the
blood the
Noose the
coffin the
I wanted my text to be as close to the Swiss style as possible and to fit everything into one box. That’s why I used the Diba font for my main Persian title and the Agency font for my English title. For the body text, I used the Nian font, which maintains readability as much as possible at small sizes. I used a different font from my main title because my main font – Diba – was not suitable for body text due to the thickness of the pen, and in addition to disrupting the form, it did not achieve the readability I wanted.
Conclusion
This project was very enjoyable for me, and despite the limited time I had, I tried my best to use all my abilities to achieve the best possible result. Working on theater posters gives one the opportunity to bring various and sometimes challenging ideas to life and to bring graphics closer to art as much as possible. Without a doubt, that was my goal as well, and I hope I was successful in this endeavor.