Designing is hard enough sometimes. Designing for specific demands can sometimes be nerve-racking when the design is meant to be mass-produced.
I designed packaging for a DVD set compilation for movies from the ’90s that Spike Lee had an acting role, director, and writing role under his 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks production company.
The color palette of the exterior panels are NY Knicks inspired blue, orange and white repeatedly shown in cohesion. When you see the inside panels, the overall desaturation in color of all the backgrounds pays homage to a film style used at least once in any given Spike Lee project. Though the inside panels are monochromatic tonal values in the background, the colors of the characters from the movies bring out the color. This is symbolic for people of color existing in a world of black and white or where they aren’t as easily accepted due to prejudice. This is also pointing to Spike Lee consistently directing attention on a P.O.C. cast and often going bold and against the grain of what black and white America expected to see on film during this era.
The 5 panels are each a different movie from the 1990s, which was an iconic decade for Spike Lee in his prime. Lots of research for image gathering as well as various cover layouts were necessary before coming to a concrete concept. It was intentional that each composition included Spike Lee’s character role, further emphasizing how actively involved he was both in front and behind the camera.
Assignment:
cover design | DVD Packaging | Mockups | Rebrand
Rationale:
The DVD theme had to be cohesive across 5 panels by either the same director, actor, network, production company, or movie sequels.
Specifications:
1/8” bleeds, Die Lines to be created in Adobe Illustrator, Panel covers to be designed in Adobe Photoshop
