My summer hiatus is over and I’m back with a brand new cover series for Gravity. The film was directed by Alfonso Cuarón, music composed by Steven Price. I have listened to the score already and was pretty impressed at how Price managed to capture the vast emptiness and especially silence of space, but more importantly the tension of being up there. And I’m not exactly talking about the story-related events happening in the movie, but the distressing thought of what it would be like floating around alone in this cold, black and ultimately lethal void. As usual in an Alfonso Cuarón project, nothing was left to chance. This includes the marketing campaign as well. Lots of black, cold colours and negative spaces. As an admirer of minimalistic art, it was a real pleasure to work on this series.

I took the official poster artwork and mixed it with the official soundtrack artwork to receive a “neutral” soundtrack cover (#1) that doesn’t give preference to either of the two main characters. Just as an earlier post, I needed to stay gender-equal as well and had to design a cover for each character of their own (#2, #3).

#1: Gravity (Custom)

#2: Gravity (Remake)

#3: Gravity (Custom)

With the following two custom covers I wanted to emphasize the plot element of floating alone in space. A horrible imagination, that gives me the creeps. While the official poster was at least taking that into account, it also added an unnecessary explosion effect, just as an eye-catcher. I got rid of that and was rewarded with a much calmer, more silent artwork (#4). Although I had to draw in the astronaut figure by hand which wasn’t easy, let me tell you that. I used the same background for the final custom (#5) and placed in that lonely, little space(wo)man to get an even stronger feeling of isolation.

#4: Gravity (Custom)

#5: Gravity (Custom)

Font-technically this was an easy job. The makers decided to use “Futura” – a font that is very popular among designers. I recreated the title and billing block and was able to drag it around and resize it as I wanted. That allowed me to generate even more empty space within the canvas – an appropriate stylistic device, especially in this custom cover series.

As a late addition I’m also adding the official artwork for the 2xLP Vinyl Edition by Mondo. This Limited Edition features a custom packaging design by Kevin Tong and comes in a deluxe gatefold jacket.

#6: Gravity (Original)

#7: Gravity (Original)

I’m more than happy to share that amazing design. If you’re interested in his work, please have a look at his Gravity Poster Process Video, it shows even more clearly how much effort was put into this artwork.