Graphic designers play an important role as part of the art department in film and television productions. However, this profession is relatively unknown to many people. Graphic designers in film are responsible for creating graphic props, which are graphic elements that are part of the set design and are necessary for understanding the plot and establishing the time period. These props include items such as restaurant menus, train tickets, identification documents, logos, labels, certificates, magazines, handwritten letters and notes, and signage for doors, shops, and street intersections.
My first encounter with graphic props came after watching the film The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) directed by Wes Anderson. Captivated by the set design and aesthetics of the film I conducted further research on the making-of process and discovered the work of Annie Atkins, a graphic designer specializing in film and television productions. In the summer of 2019 I had the opportunity to participate in a two-day workshop called Graphic Design for Filmmaking conducted by Annie Atkins in Dublin, Ireland. This workshop provided me with an introduction to the world of filmmaking and deepened my interest in the subject.
Inspired by the workshop and my growing fascination I made the decision to explore the topic more extensively in my bachelor's thesis. As a well-known example of exceptional set design in the German-speaking region I chose the series Babylon Berlin directed by Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries, and Henk Handloegten. The series is based on the novel series by Volker Kutscher and is set in the late 1920s to early 1930s in Berlin. It tells crime stories against the backdrop of the political events spanning from the end of the Weimar Republic to the rise of the Nazis.
In my thesis I imagined the scenario of the sixth novel in the series, Lunapark, being adapted into a series. Treating the novel as a script I identified and created a range of graphic elements required for the film, drawing upon the knowledge gained from the workshop and supplemented by extensive literature and research. A significant part of my work involved delving deep into the graphic design elements of the 1920s and early 1930s. I sought out historical references that could serve as inspiration for the props I needed to create.
The results of my work (in German language) including the graphics I produced can be found and explored here.
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