The brief from the D&AD Student Awards 2012, was to create a cover for Little White Lies magazine depicting the main character from the movie, Black Swan. 

 

The concept of the design is to contrast the dark and twisted nature of the Black Swan to the graceful and pure White Swan. 

 

All of the text used was purposefully created for the project to give the cover a unique impact. The uppercase typefaces on the left side of the portrait portray an evil, disturbed and vindictive persona of the Black Swan. The stark contrast of the white typeface on a black background depicts the Black Swan as strong and powerful. The hand rendered lowercase typeface on the right side of the portrait represents a timid, insecure, virginal girl. The script is elegant and graceful as is the White Swan. The handwritten type is also in a pale gray which depicts the delicate and defeated nature of the White Swan.

 

The left side of the illustration morphs into the Black Swan head on the right side of the face. This feature represents how the dark side of the black swan consumes the innocent and trapped white swan. The gradient of the black swan head represents a spot varnish finish.

 

The hand rendered typeface of “The Black Swan Issue” title, is an homage to the movie scene where Nina (Natalie Portman) is faced with profanity on the bathroom miror which is written in red lipstick.