Last Thursday I talked about a little personal project I had in the works. I had so much fun making those 3 Star Wars themed travel posters I decided to make more. My goal here is to post one every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday along with and explanation of the movie reference, stylistic inspiration and whatever else I feel like talking about. I’m not sure how long I can keep this up but so far my only goal is to stay away from Earth movies as long as I can.
For this first installment I thought to myself, where can you go from Star Wars. It’s pretty hard to beat the combination of popularity, nostalgia and geekdom found in Lucas’s baby all at the same time. I decided to go big and pick the next largest Sci Fi epic I could think of.
If you have not read Dune or at least watched the tv-miniseries you are missing out on one of the best science fiction / space opera stories ever made. Frank Herbert was nearly Tolkien (think all the structure with less singing and easier names) in his efforts to create a full realized setting. The story is full of action, drama, revenge, politics and giant terrifying sand worms. For the poster I decided I wanted something that alluded to those giant sand worms but didn’t actually show them. While I didn’t mean to capture a specific scene in the book, there is a moment where the anticipation in the moments right before a worm emerges that is excellent. For visual style I chose textures that make the composition look dried out but not sun bleached and a font that was reminiscent of Mojave desert relics, diners and truck stops that lay long abandoned.
Thanks everyone for looking,
I’m excited to try this again on Wednesday.
Blake Smisko 