Children of Paradise DVD Menus

Here's a selection of DVD menu designs for The Criterion Collection's Children of Paradise. It's a two-part film spread over a two disc set (for the DVD at least) and it's packed with all kinds of extras which makes for a lot of screens. These are just a portion of them.

One of the challenges with this package was to interweave the whimsical sensibility of the Alexandre Trauner production painting which appears on the cover (as well as the theatrical re-release poster) with the film imagery. I stuck with type styles that were true of 19th century France and at the same time reflected of a certain 1940's aesthetic as well. The result is more storybook than history book which really seemed in accord with the movie.



















Covering Lonesome

Here are a couple of murky iPhone pics of the cover painting in-progress as well details from the completed cover image. Blogger has a way of down-resing jpeg files. So these won't convey the details of what's been uploaded, alas. It's all painted with gouache on illustration board, letters too. The radiant lines of the setting sun were done with a ruling pen and beam compass. Nervous making? You bet! Those things seem to have a mind of their own sometimes. Here's how it turned out. Lonesome comes out, for the first time ever on home video, August 28th. I can't reccomend it enough. I'll put up a few more images from the package as that date comes around.