Peter Greenaway Film Festival

I aspired to understand the works of Peter Greenaway, find an underlying theme in each of his films and create materials for a film festival that carried a cohesive design language. My objective was to create complex set of materials that would function together as a whole — from retail environments and product lines to brands and books. I was tasked to marry multiple messages with divergent formats—all with a unified approach and holistic aesthetic.

Considered an avant-gardist with a wide access to mainstream cinema, Peter Greenaway’s unique visual language reveals a strong influence by his training as a painter, structural linguist and philosopher. The challenge was to create a rich dramatic experience that matches the stark bold images in the films of Greenaway. The images are influenced by Renaissance painting, its architecture and juxtaposition to nature exploring the limits of provocative eroticism, sexual pleasure and death. I decided to use white cotton, black leather and red velvet to drive across the textures of life, death and sex that were so prominent in all his films. The bold use of colors along with the images made the visual experience very extravagant and grandiose. The festival was designed to speak to the audience —art aficionados, film buffs and Greenaway’s fans who would gather to celebrate his works as a director, painter and writer.