now or never

Now or Never is a surrealism poster series that reflects resilience. In collaboration with my partner, we decided to display the concept of a controlled versus free world separated by a portal. In the controlled world, the woman shown is restricted by strings as she is a marionette puppet. As she breaks free from the strings, she enters the free world where she is the one in control. The result creates an eerie, yet eye-catching narrative as the woman shows her strength and resilience to break free from control.

getting started

For our mood board, we gathered examples of surrealism that we find most interesting or in some cases, disturbing. We were interested in the idea of using bright colors to make the posters seem cheerful from afar, but as the viewer takes a closer look they would see a deeper meaning and eerie storyline within the posters. We used this inspiration to help us create an “unsettling perfect world” scene to show our concept of control vs. freedom.

sketches

Our sketches progress from the original vision to the final sketches that we executed in photography. In the original sketches, we envisioned a storyline of the model looking at the portal, then tapping into the portal, and finally landing in a new world. Our final sketches shifted to a storyline where the model was controlled by strings and cut free by herself in a free world. Ultimately, the shift in our ideas was a result of clarifying and narrowing down our concept to show the struggle between a controlled versus free world. 

production