LAUIL503: Studio Brief 2 - Dracula Contextual Research Part 2

Podcasts

Music

"Your pulmonary trembles in your outstretched arm"

"With a pale white feline face"

"Mistress to the horror kid, cemetery of the white love ghoul"

"Lying cheek to cheek in your cold embrace, so soft and so tragic as a slaughterhouse"

"If I was your vampire, soon as the moon, instead of killing time we'd have each other 'til the sun"

"Death waits for no one"

"Taking your smile apart with my spade tongue and the hole where the heart is"

"We built this tomb together, I will fill it alone beyond the pale, everything's black, no turning back"

"Bloodstained sheets in the shape of your heart, here comes the moon"

"We'll burn and I'l eat your ashes, it's possible we're seducing your corpse"

"Under Saturn's rays I rest in eternal sleep"

"Clawing from the grave, my batwings spread"

"I hunt the streets at night, terror from the sky, in bat-form I strike"

"Your naked body dragged back to my darkened crypt"

"Light now slips away, manipulate your mind, darkness is my slave"

"Taste the sins of Hell, the blood that I so crave"

"Bloodsucking creatures of the night, nocturnal spectre hiding from the light"

"Death plagues the streets in which they dwell"

"Addicted to your blood, at dawn they sleep"

"Unveil the hidden coffin, lift the lid of terror, feel the deadly cold freeze you from inside"

"Driven by the instincts of centuries of horror, implanted along the brain of the sickening parasite,
linked together by one trait, the Hell-filled need to kill, kill, kill, kill, kill..."

"Swooping down from shadowed skies, taking simple human form, shed their wings to stay the mortal man"

"Lock their jaws into your veins, satanic soldiers strike their prey" 

"Spreading the veil, he'll spread his wings"

"Leaving at sunset, fly high and low, back before the sun's glow"

"Sucking your blood through your veins, there's only one way you can stop him"

"You gotta trace the vampire to his lair, oh yeah, and you gotta drive the stake right through the heart of the living dead!"

"Vampire I'm losing control, vampire just give me your cloak"

Illustration / Graphic Design

Dracula cover illustration by David Mackintosh. I love the textured effect used on the cover design, it's very grungy and dirty to give the sense of ageing, decaying and weathering as well as visual interest to the areas of plain red, helloing to blend the darkness of the character in. The three way colour palette of red, black and grey to portray blood, lust, shadow and a dark character minimalistic, understated and doesn't overdo it - successfully creating a visual language of horror. The grey is especially nice as it's more muted, than if it were to be white, where the main focus of the image would then be on the stark contrast of the white text on the black of the background. The font choice is really pleasing, it's a classic-looking gothic font pairing well with a classic gothic literature. The larger 'D' makes good use of the left side of the canvas and, again, ties the blackness of the character into the image. The character design of Dracula is particularly well done - small, lithe features and a classic Nosferatu head with a huge batlike cape too big for the canvas. His gesture and movement from his feet show him to be prowling, spindly yet graceful like a spider.

 

Dracula cover by Luke Parker (Art of Parker), used for the Kindle 2014 illustrated edition cover, sold on Amazon. I like the basic 3 colour way, clearly representing the red of blood, the black of the cape and the white of a pale vampiric face. The red eyes against the white face bring automatic attention to the character and the demon eyes of the vampire - very clever use of colour! The simple shapes are strong, bold and angular; the harsh lines of the shoulders of the cape, the angled widow's peak of his hair, the triangular eyes. There's nothing soft or round or comforting. The use of negative image within the cape is also really clever, starting from the mouth to look like gushes of blood and extended outward to form something else. A river of blood? A mountain? It almost looks like an angled upwards view of a church steeple but I don't think that's what it is. It would have been really clever if that's what it was, or even one of his bride's extending an arm outwards to his mouth to look like blood. On the kindle edition I'm not a fan of the Dracula font at all. I used to use something very similar when I started using Photoshop in 2004 at 14 years old. It's very dated, very MySpace, and the extra space between the 'd' and the 'r' is rather annoying and serves no purpose. It's either a design error or part of the font. I wish something else had been chosen as it ruins the professionalism and immediacy of the illustration. 

Minimalist movie poster design for Frances Ford Coppola's Dracula by Will Holdsworth. Again, less is more! Using a flesh colour for the majority of the poster and red circles with lines to portray two puncture holes with drops of blood is very subtle but very immediate and effective in its context once we "get it" and understand what's happening with the help of the type. The type, again, is simple. No overdecorated or over-ornamented lettering. It's nice and clean... aside from the blood. One puncture hole dripping longer than the other gives a simple sense of movement and leads the eye down towards the title of the movie.