Art Direction: the Two Popes

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CLIENT: Turku City Theatre

PROJECT: Don Juan

Art direction for the advertising campaign for a Finnish staging of the Two Popes, a play by Anthony McCarten. The play deals with a turning point in the Catholic church, an unprecedented passing of the baton from one pope to another. One is ready to retire – but so is the other. While the two are almost polar opposites with vastly opposing views, they must find common ground and one of them must bend.

The title of the play was set in Pangram Pangram’s Migra Italic, which is a traditional serif with a modern twist. The author’s name could be no less than 75% of the size of the title of the play, which presented some challenges as the name ran the risk of eclipsing the title. I solved this by setting the name in Migra Light Italic, outlining the name. This approach allowed me to place the name partly behind the title in ad spaces where place was tight.

The actors were photographed and filmed separately due to scheduling challenges, which meant their dialogue had to be pieced together in the editing room.

The campaign images were photographed in lighting reminiscent of Caravaggio’s paintings, evoking the feeling of paintings found in the Vatican. The images were treated to look like slightly cracked oil paintings, symbolizing cracks in the facade the two men try to uphold at the start of the play. Green was selected for the background as it represents anticipation and hope.