Category: Brief 3

I decided to look into other game posters in order to get inspiration for my own Bloodletting posters. I also researched film and anime posters to broaden my ideas. All of these images are taken from Google Image search.

Game Posters

The game posters I have researched were mainly within the cyberpunk, noir and horror genres. I like the bright tones of the first three posters. The bright pink, magenta and violet contrasted with black and dark blues creates an atmosphere of streets being alive at night with lights coming from shops and spilling out onto the concrete. It’s the same ambiance I want my game to have and therefore convey though advertising. I also like the clutter of Catherine game poster. There’s a lot going on which creates a sense of a fast paced game. For my poster I could use that chaos to represent the conflict between the church and the barbers. I’d like some of my designs to be influenced by punk/cyberpunk and be loud and in audience’s face. I like the dark shadows of The Wolf Among Us poster and how the light source is a match which automatically tells the audience about the character so does the pose. The Void and Meddler poster has great composition but the thing I like about it the most is the static like look of the background lights and the neon look of the typeface. The Evil Within and Bloodborne posters are strikingly different from the first three posters. They’re not bright and don’t include lights or much color instead they’re mainly black with muted colors. I like how The Evil Within poster doesn’t use a character to advertise their game instead it uses a brain and a building with clever composition. This is something I would like to explore in one of my design and focus on the Bloodletting tools or the symbols from the game like the neon cross by it self and the logo. Bloodborne poster includes a chair which I thought was applicable to my game since the barber or the bloodletting chair are the focus of my designs. It’s good to see how other posters integrate a chair into it’s composition. I do like the fact that someone is sitting in it as originally I wanted to include the chair by it self. I’m thinking about including a possessed patient being bleed in the chair violently screaming. Perhaps have it at a canted angle in order to make the design more dynamic. The patient could be trying to break free away from the bloodletting chair towards the corner of the page. I also like the facial expressions of the characters. They’re very explicit and represent each character well. I want the three barbers to have very distinctive facial expression to make their characters memorable.

Film Posters

I decided to research film posters in order to broaden my ideas. I like the blue tone of Nikita poster combined with bright pink font. It gives it a more of a run down club feel which I like. The Oldboy poster also has that night street feel with all the neon signs from shops and clubs. It’s a very striking composition as well with the main characters being so small in relation to the signs. It connotes these to characters to be facing off a bigger problem or that the society or the world is judging them (which is true to the plot of the film). I think that the title of the film being integrated into the rest of the neon signs creates a successful composition. I’d like to attempt this when designing my poster. Inherent Vice posters are one of my favorites this is why I included character posters as well. I haven’t actually seen this film yet but I really like how creative and cluttered these posters are paying homage to some of the older poster designs.  The bright colors create a very psychedelic feel to the posters (again representing the ‘vice’ and the narrative). I also like how the designs combine the genres of neo noir and psychedelia. There’s the iconic composition of noir posters reminiscent of films such as Double Indemnity combined with the bright colors and neon fonts. Since my game also combines different genres I might pull out elements of each genre and attribute it to either the font or the composition or the image itself and combine these together to create a unique feel. Finally the Sweeney Todd poster depicts a barber sitting on a barber chair which I thought was appropriate to my project. It’s another point of reference for my bloodletting/barber chair design. I like that the title is right at the bottom below the chair.

Anime Posters

I like how dynamic and creative anime posters are. I particularly like how movement is represented through these posters and how they establish conflict between characters (especially the first Psycho-Pass poster). Again I like the clutter of the first poster and how the chaos of the background creates conflict between the two present characters. At the same time I like the white/gray background Psycho-Pass posters and the  Blue Exorcist poster as well because they’re really clear and the background doesn’t take away from the main composition. It’s simple yet effective. On the other hand the static like backgrounds of the first Psycho-Pass poster and Ergo Proxy poster they go with the tone of the cyberpunk genre. I also really like the positioning of the title for Psycho-Pass at the bottom of the page. Again it’s a really clean design which I could use for the church’s exorcists design to show off the contrasting sides. I also like Psycho-Pass‘ animation style, especially how the clothes behave which adds movement to the designs.

Below are photographs I’ve taken around Lincoln of the outside of buildings which I thought are good starting points or reference images for my environment designs. I also included some images I found online to broaden my ideas.

Reference Photographs Collages

There were too many photographs so I decided to make collages out of them. The places are still visible but I have chosen the best images or my favorite ones from these to use as my definite references. The photographs were taken at night because the environment designs will also be night images. I was looking for interesting architectures or old school shops as well as bright, colorful lights. Over all I think I got some good reference images especially for the outside of the barber shop.

Reference Photographs for Outside of the Barber Shop

Below are the three best photographs I have chosen from the collages. My favorite is the first photograph because it reminds me of an old school barber shop. I also like the carving in the wood combined with the dustiness of the windows.

Reference Photographs for Lights Outside of the Barber Shop

Reference images for outside of the Barber Shop/ Tattoo Parlor

The images below were found on Google Image search. I decided to look for Barber Shops and Tattoo Parlors because I thought it would be a good idea to include surrounding buildings to make the street more cluttered, busy and alive especially at night. My favorite image for the outside of the Barber Shop is the one captioned Barber Shop 1. This is because I like the neon signs and bright colors combined with an old school architecture of the building and the urban metal gates. I also thought it would be a good idea to research neon barber poles to make the scenery more cyberpunk.

Reference images for indoors of the Barber Shop

I mainly researched the barber chairs and bloodletting chairs. Turns out they’re pretty similar. I like the look of a leather chair with metal details. Perhaps make it look more rusty and used up rather than shiny and new like in the images below. Maybe even include some bloodstains and a design stitched on to the leather. I want to use the chair as one of the main elements of the posters.

Reference images for the cross

I decided to research neon crosses because of the cyberpunk genre elements I wanted to explore throughout this project. I want the neon cross to be one of the signature designs for the game carried throughout the posters, website and the merchandise. I might try to incorporate it into the logo as well but this is yet to be decided. I really like the concept of having words in the middle of the cross. I could use it to represent the uniformity of the church and their attempt to exert superiority in the field of exorcism over the barbers. I also researched chemist crosses and symbols to include on the outside of a pharmacy perhaps as well as Gothic crosses to include on the cases of bloodletting tools etc.

Reference images for the Church

Below are a few images I research to have a point of reference for the church in the middle of the city. In order to combine it with the cyberpunk genre I want to add a massive neon cross running through the middle top part of the church.

Reference images for the Pharmacy Shop

Finally I decided to research a few images of Pharmacy Shops. These will serve as a point of reference if I decide to include a pharmacy next to the barber shop or somewhere else in the environment design. These are pretty similar to other buildings I have researched only have a massive Pharmacy sign on them. I like the run down look of these and the big glass windows with clutter. I might include an inside of a pharmacy design on the game’s website.

Bibliography

Images which aren’t my own photographs are from Google Image search.

http://www.rpharms.com/museum-pdfs/13-pharmaceutical-symbols.pdf

Bloodletting is a medical practice popular in Medieval Europe although it existed since ancient Egypt. Erasistratus believed that illnesses were caused by an overabundance of blood. The blood was drained from the patient with the use of tools such as the lancet and dripped into bleeding bowls. There were alternative techniques to cutting such as leeches and cupping. These will be depicted in the designs for my game.

 

Barbers:

In 1163 church prohibited monks and priest from performing Bloodletting. I could use this fact as a plot device for my game and create a conflict between the exorcists employed by the church and the barbers who perform bloodletting as a form of exorcism. Church would be represented as a richer and powerful establishment where as the barbers would be represented as more of an underground, street service. Barber Surgeons became responsible for treatments such as Bloodletting. The barber pole is red, blue and white to represent blood, vain and bandages.

 

 Tools for Bloodletting:

Most commonly used on animals but fleams with smaller blades were used on humans too. I might put these in the interior of the barbershop but I wouldn’t use these as the main bloodletting tool in the game. I’m looking for something of more elegant and/or elaborate design.

Apparently the lancets that came in cases used to have dedications from other physicians or even patients who enjoyed being bleed. I’m considering using this for the main bloodletting tool in the game because I can add elaborate carvings to it’s design. I also prefer it aesthetically. I will most likely have a dedication carved into it because I really like that small detail from history. It would make for a good Easter egg for my game.

Developed in the 18th century it was the more comfortable tool used on humans. It was made out of brass and the blade was made out of steel. I like how it looks aesthetically but I still prefer the regular lancet because it looks a bit more brutal. I might have it used by a side character in the game however. I do want it present in one way or another.

Popularized in the 18th and 19th century Europe the case was made out of bras and the blade out of steel same as the spring lancet. The depth could be adjusted on the top and release switch was positioned on the side which allowed the blades to make multiple cuts at the same time. Round shaped Scarificators were French. I like the aesthetic of these and will most probably include them in my designs but with more carvings on the case.

The glass would be heated up to extract the blood. There are a few different techniques of cupping but I don’t need to research these in depth for this project. I will most likely include a design of a cupping kit.

I will most likely include a vessel with leeches in it but not as a main design.

These were usually made out of tin or pewter and rarely out of silver. I will definitely include these in my designs.

Bibliography

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-lindsey-fitzharris/the-bloody-history-behind-barbers-pole_b_3537716.html

http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/why-are-barber-poles-red-white-and-blue

http://www.history.com/news/a-brief-history-of-bloodletting

http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/7-unusual-ancient-medical-techniques

http://www.medicalantiques.com/medical/Scarifications_and_Bleeder_Medical_Antiques.htm

http://www.rauantiques.com/library/scientific%20antiques/collecting-medical-antiques-COLLECTINGMEDICALANTIQUESLIB.html

    Below are a few pictures I found of the streets of Tokyo taken by a Japanese photographer Masashi Wakui. They have a cyberpunk feel to them and remind me of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner from 1982. Cyberpunk stands out to me as a genre and even though it feels overused by independent game developers who combine the genre with pixelated graphics I would still like to bring an aspect of cyberpunk into my designs. The bright and colorful lights combined with rusty run down urban-metallic architecture has appealed to me. I can’t think of an example of demonology being represented within the cyberpunk genre (although there are some films which have combined horror with neo-noir) which is why I think it would be a unique and intriguing hybrid, besides a neon glowing crucifix in a metal cage sounds pretty cool. So far Wakui’s work has inspired me to create neon barber shop signs which light would reflect on the puddles on the street. On the sides there would be clusters of homeless addicts affected by demon infected blood. I can use these pictures as reference photographs for the environment design of the street outside of the barbershop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below are some examples of environment design from Blade Runner which is a great example of a Cyberpunk genre. I could also use some of these as reference images. The set design is filled with bright lights and neon signs contrasting with a dark background. I could incorporate this into my own designs.

 

Metropolis (1927) is another example of a Cyberpunk environment. Below are some examples from the film which I can yet again use as reference images for my thumbnail environment design. I like the German Expressionist style of this with painted backgrounds juxtaposing metallic props. Rough, canted angles and geometric feel of these designs are also inspiring.

 

Bibliography

http://sobadsogood.com/2016/01/07/tokyos-hidden-streets-look-they-are-straight-movie/

I found Blade Runner & Metropolis images on Google Images.