John Williams is an American composer, conductor, and musician, regarded by many as the greatest film composer of all time.
Believe is a collection of designs made as a tribute to John William’s legacy in the film music world. Since the 1950s, he has been contributing his musical talents to allow us to enjoy movies and stories by bringing them alive. He enables us to believe the scenes right in front of our eyes and immerse ourselves in another world. From documentaries to sci-fi and fantasies, he has shown his versatility in a wide range of genres.
The final icon design is John Williams in a conducting pose, the collars of his suit decorated with music score lines and a film strip. Together, they represent how John Williams' role in film music. Black and white are colours reminiscent of the elegance and sophistication of classical music, and can be found in instruments such as the piano or in music score.
I got inspiration from the arrow keys on my keyboard, using them as a way to indicate various directions and hence versatility. In my final icon here, the arrows point up, down, left, right, and even inwards and outwards. I also added 4 different colours to further represent a diverse range.
The goal was to use Gestalt Principles in the design of this logo. Personally, I really like the use of negative space in a logo, hence I wanted to try it out. In my design here, the law of closure is used to bring out the shape of a music note between J and W. I chose a thick bold font to bring out the negative space design I had in mind. The overall design is simple to be readable and effective in conveying 'JW' for John Williams while capturing interest through the negative space forming a music note.
This set of 10 icons related to JohnWilliams comes from his top 10 most notable works: Hedwig's Theme (Harry Potter), Flying Theme (E.T. the Extra Terrestrial), the main themes of Schindler's List, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws, Superman, Jurassic Park, The Raider's March (Indiana Jones), Imperial March (Star Wars), and Hymn to the Fallen (Saving Private Ryan).
I went for a minimalist style for the icons, leaving just enough information for the viewer to recognise which movie it represents. As many of the films he has worked on are already very well known and familiar to most people, I wanted to add interest by portraying them from a different perspective. In contrast to the black and white colour scheme of John Williams’ icon and logo, I used a bright variety of colours to represent the ‘colour’ John Williams brings to films through his music.
"Without John Williams, bikes don’t really fly, nor do brooms in Quidditch matches, nor do men in red capes. There is no force, dinosaurs do not walk the Earth, we do not wonder, we do not weep, we do not believe."
- StevenSpielberg’s honorific speech at the 44th Life Achievement Award Gala Tribute to John Williams.
Using this quote, I worked on 4 experimental typography compositions: one with text, one with graphic elements, one with a picture and one with an illustration.
I felt that the quote could be shortened to ‘Without John WIlliams... we do not believe.”, which is the main message. Hence, I wanted my designs to have a fantastical, imaginative, or wondrous emotion to them. Another aspect I wanted to incorporate into my designs is the idea of dimensions, as Williams adds a new dimension to films through his music.
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I created a series of 3 posters based on 3 keywords I chose to represent John Williams - Signature, List, and Believe.
Signature is for time signature in music, and for his music by which we can identify him;
List for the enormously long list of movies he has worked on for seven decades now, and for (one of) his favourtie movies Schindler’s List and its heartbreakingly poweful music;
Believe for how his music bring scenes alive and enable us to believe the even the impossible.
To get unique and unusual pictures, I used mirror paper to reflected and distort light (please refer to my work 'Distorted Reflections' here). The picture for ‘Signature’ has diagonal lines like how one would sign their signature; the picture in the middle for ‘List’ is simple to complement the large amount of texture added to the poster through text (a list of all the movies John Williams has worked on), also, it has a flow like a list. For ‘Believe’, I chose a picture with a mysterious, (almost) outer-space feel to bring out the idea of something unbelievable.