1984

This was a really fun experiment. I wanted to show identities being erased — especially the idea of love being erased — but it felt important to do it for real rather than faking it digitally. In 1984, words are removed, rewritten, and quietly made to disappear, so physically wiping the image away felt closer to that idea than using a computer effect.

I printed the image onto acetate and then literally wiped parts of it off in different ways: alcohol and a scraper, a wet cloth, and even my own inky fingers. It took quite a few attempts to get the balance right, but in the end I was so pleased with how it turned out! Here are some of the attempts along the way:

And here's the final image:

I wanted the text to feel just as handmade as the image, so I wrote the billing in chunky pencil and smudged it myself. My fellow key art designer pal Doug Kerr printed the title for me on his fancy retro embossed label-maker, which I stuck over a handwritten version underneath — a nod to the way history is constantly rewritten in the story.