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Wednesday 26 October 2011

Houdini

!() New Initial Design for Biographical poster - I'm hoping to make it look a bit more like the one below by changing some of the typefaces & text layout. NB the above design is text copied verbatim from the wikipedia page on houdini except where in red

Old Post follows - >>>>>

I've plumped for Houdini as my historical personage for a few reasons:

a) he's relatively unknown today
b) he share's my interest in the history of magic
c) his acts lend themselves to interesting artistic interpretations

I've come up with a few ideas so far as to how to represent him - so far the idea of him being an escape artist and escaping the frame / the artwork in which he is situated are most prominent.

I thought it would be interesting to reproduce an original poster advertising one of his 'challenges' but excising his name from the artwork - also recreating one or more of the equipment his feats such as the underwater tank escape (i.e. a fishtank, a cage with chains) with Houdini absent.

I'm swatting up by reading Houdini on Magic edited by Walter Gibson & Morris Young, and intend to re-watch the wonderful "the Illusionist" movie based on the battle between 2 turn of the century performers and their increasing risk taking in order to capture the perfect stage illusion.

3 comments:

  1. http://www.akahoudini.org/ looks like a good place to get information

    ReplyDelete
  2. Another good source of info: http://www.wildabouthoudini.com/2011_10_01_archive.html

    some font resources: http://bluefaqs.com/2010/05/40-free-retro-and-vintage-fonts/

    http://www.noupe.com/fonts/45-outstanding-free-vintage-fonts.html

    http://www.archivetype.com/Single-Fonts/

    ReplyDelete
  3. also here are some tips on making a vintage poster: http://psd.tutsplus.com/tutorials/designing-tutorials/how-to-create-a-retro-boxing-poster-in-photoshop/

    ReplyDelete