About the poster
Creating a poster for a film can be difficult. How can we sum up what the film is about in a simple but striking image? We knew that we wanted to show the roughness and the beauty of Christiania in one image and Richard came up with the idea of hands holding a heart. This image has some signifance for us because an early title for our film was, "Christiania - Our Heart is in Your Hands" (see more about this in the post, "Name that film").
Chris Zeigler made the felt heart. It actually has two sides and I asked Chris to make the stitching around the outside edge a bit bolder on the front side - so he did, without worrying how it would look on the backside. When I saw the rough, haphazard stitching that resulted, I knew that was the image we wanted for the poster.
I also wanted a rougher looking pair of hands to hold the heart, letting us know that Christiania is not just a happy, hippy place. There is a lot of hard work that has gone into creating this community, and it is sometimes a dangerous place. My friend Bob has these wonderful tattoos on his arms and wrists, and his hands ended up looking rough and calloused in the photo.
The background is from the remaining foundation of a building that was torn down near where I work. I love the scarred cement, and the cold, clear winter light on the day I took the photograph gives it a lovely and dramatic look.
All of these elements were put together by my longtime friend and poster collaborator John Hubbard. John designed all of my posters when I was producing theater in Seattle in the 90's. He is now a freelance graphic designer living in Jämsänkoski Finland.
We think everything came together beautifully for our poster, and we love it. We hope you do, too!
You can buy art prints, framed art prints and t-shirts of this poster at the Bus No. 8 page on Society6
Posted by Robert Lawson
