Do we still have rooms with wall full of film posters of favourite films or film stars? In the time of promos and trailers, how effective can film posters be? There’s a lot more to poster design than what meets the eye. Beyond serving a function to inform, posters that are meticulously planned and designed can provoke the audience on the right emotional level.
Young artist Hamid Bhuiyaan’s works in recent web fictions have grabbed the attention of the netizens. The arresting compositions in the posters of the web anthology series Unoloukik, web film Munshigiri or Bahattor Ghonta, received well deserved appreciation from the audience.
In his recent venture in Chorki's three episode anthology series Jago Bahey, Hamid takes up the challenge of re-creating historical concepts. Jago Bahey revolves around the dates 1952, 1970 and 1971. For the audience, the dates, the returning call of Nuruldin Jago Bahey Konthe Sobai or a simple visual reference of Zahir Raihan accumulate in a nostalgic lump. The painstaking attention to detail in the posters of Jago Bahe elevated the expectation from the productions –Shobder Khowab; Light, Camera...Objection and Bunker Boy. They just say enough and not a word more.
“I was given the brief of the three stories by Auneem bhai (Saleh Sobhan Auneem)and together we worked on the look of the poster. My cue was ‘Nostalgia’ and that what I intended to bring in the design. We took elements from each story that represents the core concept to design the posters,” Hamid shared.
His affinity for line drawing and typographies are evident through his works. Re-creating and re-imagining concepts from the past especially when it involves periodic narratives of our history, the work brings in extra challenge. “This work needed research. I intended to blend the feel of the textures, font styles that were used in old newspapers and yet have touch of my own,” Hamid explained. Illustrations being his strong point, he implements them in most of his work.
Hamid is thought to be the black sheep of the family for taking up Drawing and Painting as his course of education and career. “I was expected to follow a regular course of education by my family.I had to leave my family to pursue my education at Charukola. My family members don’t speak to me for my choice of life. However the irony is that I didn’t finish the course,” he laughed. “During my second year, I was influenced by the works of Sabyasachi Mistry and was driven towards digital drawing. I began my practice with a Wacom I was gifted. My interest in typography grew from the works of Sabyasachi Hazra. Both the Sabyasachis have their influences in my work” he shared laughingly. He later received a four year scholarship in Bangalore at Acharya Institute in Visual Communication and Design. On his return, he began working in the ad industry.
“I make a sketch according the words or the essence of the story first. The design is then transformed to digital drawing,” Hamid walks through his working process. Illustrations being his strong point, he implements them in most of his work. Hamid’s journey as a practitioner with advertising giants like Asiatic, Adcomm, Bitopi, Carrotcomm gave him a ground to develop his skills. He however nurtured a passion for film posters in his heart. As an avid followed of illustrator Raj Khatri, Hamid always looked for an avenue to experiment his skills in film posters. His stepping stone in fiction began with Unoloukik. “My association with Film Noir began in 2014 through an animation project where I worked as a character and background artist. Although I was approached to work in other projects by them, the one that saw light was Unoloukik,” Hamid recalled.
Talking about signature style of an artist Hamid said a signature concept is inevitable in visual medium. “When an art form is practiced through a long time, especially in the visual medium, a style is inevitable and there is nothing wrong with it. However an artist needs to be open to experimentation and push their boundaries. We are surrounded with visual references; honestly it is not easy to create a signature style,” he shared. Hamid intends to explore stories and transfer them visually through his work.
Priyanka Chowdhury is an art researcher and art writer in the making. She can be reached at priyanka.chowdhury@gmail.com.