Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, the great Polish composer (1933–2010), was internationally renowned
for his symphonies and chorals. The term "spiritual minimalism" is often
used to describe his works. According to Wikipedia,
spiritual minimalism was
a term used to refer to a number of late-twentieth-century composers of Western classical music, whose works are distinguished by a minimalist compositional aesthetic and a distinctly religious or mystical subject focus.
If you'd like to read more about Górecki and his work, go
here. If you'd like to listen to some of his masterpieces, go
here or
here.
Back to the poster...
I designed it for a competition commemorating Henryk Mikołaj Górecki. Digging deeper into his biography and work, I thought that using light seemed a perfect fit to
show his approach. As in my other posters, I was trying to use as
little graphic design means as possible, so the whole design was based on
photography that was retouched. I believe this gives the viewer the
sense of something physical that wasn't created in a computer program from start
to finish, even if the photography is modified to some extent.
Light became a material building the whole
structure of the poster. The idea came to me after analyzing the shapes
of the letters in composer's last name. It was possible to create a
message of the light going "through" the name of the composer and
therefore create notes on the musical staff.
The other thing I
wanted to communicate was a metaphor of music coming to existence
through the inspiration (that some believe comes from God).
Click to see more pictures from the making-of: