Hamlet
This tragic tale's Act I Scene I is portrayed with an eerie, dramatic atmosphere, expressing the watchguards' haunting night encounter with the Ghost of king Hamlet.
Photographed characters show their emotions through facial expressions and an established system of typographic treatment that distinguishes the emotion and intensities of their voices. This system is consistently used throughout all three books, but each book is given a unique ambience of its genre. Using scale, composition, weight and distortion, various emotions, volumes, and intensities are shown. The project also mimics experiences of theatre onto the printed page. The colour red is used in Hamlet to refer to a theatre’s curtains, the intense themes of death, power and anger, and to foreshadow the blood that is soon shed in the dramatic finale of the play.
If you have questions about specific system-wide design decisions, click here to read more.
On the opening spread, curtains are drawn through a flap which reveals the act, author and designer. This invites the reader to immerse themself as an active reader, and indicates the beginning of the play.
Lifted flaps are used to introduce characters as they enter the space of the page, or stage.
Abrupt sounds are given pull-tabs that travel from their source on the page to the destination: our space.
Descriptive sounds are warped and fluid like the waves sound travels by.
Pop-ups are used selectively and strategically to indicate moments of surprise; like the ghost's first appearance in Hamlet.
A system of type treatment is used to indicate emotion, intensity, and volume. This involves scale, weight, and distortion.
Additionally, the project seeks to encourage reflection and comprehension of the ever-relevant stories. Each play is given a supplemental workbook that playfully presents prompts and invites the reader to draw, write, doodle, and express their responses to the scenes. Unlike a traditional textbook-workbook duo, this workbook aims to be friendly, creative, visual and inviting. Also, at the back of the scenes themselves, three vellum sheets are given which provide scene-specific prompts that evoke reflection on the play. These can be written on and shared.
Click the links below to view the full spreads PDFs.
Want to see more about the project? Have a look at the links below. Or, navigate to the menu at the top of the site to explore more.
