MIMESIS
︎ Make your own layout by dragging the pictures! ︎
For my essay I choose to write in a play-like format. As such, I started my design outcome research by looking for stuff related to theatre. One of the main things I found were the famous Broadway playbill booklets and posters. I thought this was a great way to relate my topic and the form I choose to write it in while still being able to use the text in it’s entirety. Playbills also have a very recognisable design motif to it, so it would be easy for people to associate these elements with theatre. During this research I found that these playbills are normally used as a way to let the spectator know the play structure, rather than having the full script like I did with my version of the playbill. I thought that for my project it made more sense to include it, since it’s a lot shorter than a typical play.
One of the main things I saw throughout the different playbills was the amount of publicity on these publications. I’ve always had an interest in creating outlandish fake ads, so I saw this a great opportunity to do it. At first I was thinking of creating realistic ads. I was going to do this by generating fake ads with a AI algorithm, like this example. However, I didn’t see a connection between using AI and my play, so I decided to take a different approach. My second idea was to recreate ads similar to the ones in the original playbills. Creating greyscale hand drawn illustrations. Even though this idea fitted with the theme, I felt I was coping a lot of the design visuals of the original booklets. So I decided instead of going through a serious route, I would modernise the ads and make them playful. With most of them being references to stuff the characters mentioned directly or indirectly.
I named my play as ‘mimesis’ which a term often used in philosophy to mean the act of imitation. Throughout the play the characters have to question the authenticity of their actions and if it’s just a performance and mere imitation. Similarly, I wanted to incorporate that into my design. The front and back covers seem to be imitations of each other stylistically. However the back cover is a lot more bare, this serves as a continuation of the story inside the booklet, just like the characters keep disappearing, leaving just the main character and the narrator. I also decided to use the gradient motif throughout the booklet because I wanted to represent the nuances of the character’s dialogue and the progression of these. I personally also think this a great way to represent my state of mind when writing the play. I started off with a very strict idea in my head but while writing I was able to see a fluidity within the arguments.
︎ Make your own layout by dragging the pictures! ︎
