Post 1. November 8, 2022

SATYAJIT RAY's films touch upon our shared humanity, exploring dynamics and tensions existing between family, traditions, love, labor and class. He is renowned for his achievements in filmmaking, he was a peerless storyteller and a giant of 20th century film. Ray was also an extraordinarily talented graphic designer with a unique visual style and before he turned to film, he was already established in this field. He created designs and illustrations for advertisements, book covers, magazine layouts, and he possessed a mastery of typography and calligraphy and combined elements of Indian motifs to these areas. Plus he designed posters for almost all of his own films.
They are stunning.

"A rebel at heart, Ray hadn’t forgotten his lessons on smashing prevalent rules from his days at Shantiniketan. At a time when posters for mainstream commercial Indian cinema cashed in on its celebrities and the then-new visual attractions of the film, Ray’s posters distilled the essence and profundity of his stories. Moving past the more traditional, extravagant hand-painted Indian cinema posters, Ray introduced photography and experimented with different visual techniques." (AIGA eye on design - 2019)