Design Studio

Film covers, grid studies, blog themes and the odd poster. 13 pieces, 2013–2026.

Fan posters, made for the love of the films. None of them are official Criterion releases, though I’d be extremely honoured if Criterion ever asked.

In the summer of 2013 I had a Tumblr phase and designed a handful of blog themes. The demos here run on sample posts.

Work for real clients, including jazz musicians and a ballet school.

• 13 Wings Nov 2026
• 12 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Oct 2026
• 11 Li Gaoyang Jazz Trio Feb 2016
• 10 The Golden Buddha Jazz Group Feb 2016
• 09 My Dance Dream Mar 2015
• 08 Mr. Skeffington Mar 2014
• 07 Toccata Aug 2013
• 06 Suspiria Jul 2013
• 05 The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog Jun 2013
• 04 Day Night Day Night Jun 2013
• 03 Woland Jun 2013
• 02 The Red Shoes May 2013
• 01 Senso May 2013

No.	Image	Title	Made for	Section	Designed
13		Wings	Larisa Shepitko	The Criterion Collection	Nov 2026
The Criterion Collection · No. 06 Wings Larisa Shepitko, 1966, USSR Wings is one of my favourite films. It is about Nadezhda Petrukhina, a fighter pilot the country thanked and then forgot, and the generation of women like her. The new poster sets her in profile against a wedge of colour — red, navy, and a pale gold triangle fanning out behind her like a plane breaking into its parts, an angular geometry borrowed from Erik Nitsche’s poster for General Dynamics. She walks out of the frame on the right, mid-stride, composed and unhurried, the wreckage of colour trailing behind her rather than in front. The earlier version that follows is a Soviet memorial board: a grid of pinned photographs and typed labels, printed as a negative, so the heroes turn into pale ghosts of themselves. Klein blue belongs to her alone there — the Cyrillic title, in my own handwriting, drips off the board in a single stroke. Designed Nov 2026 Tools Affinity, Google Gemini (images generated from film stills), Cyrillic title handwritten Inspired by Erik Nitsche’s poster for General Dynamics; the original Mosfilm theatrical poster for Wings; the Criterion cover for The Color of Pomegranates; Red Banner’s guide to VVS colouration, for the palette; the Iconian Fonts typeface Soviet, for the title
12		The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie	Ronald Neame	The Criterion Collection	Oct 2026
The Criterion Collection · No. 05 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Ronald Neame, 1969, UK Muriel Spark’s novel is one of my all-time favourites, and Maggie Smith is magnetic as its Edinburgh schoolmistress and her devoted, scheming set. The hand-drawn arrows and heart borrow from the All About Eve poster and trace who is plotting against whom. The watercolour was generated with Google Gemini. Designed Oct 2026 Tools Affinity, Google Gemini Inspired by Haerin of NewJeans; Erik Nitsche’s poster for All About Eve (1950)
11		Li Gaoyang Jazz Trio	Chinese Jazz Association	Other Designs	Feb 2016
Other Designs · No. 03 Li Gaoyang Jazz Trio Chinese Jazz Association, China Poster for the Beijing saxophonist Li Gaoyang and his trio, made for their 2016 debut at the Nišville International Jazz Festival in Serbia, the first time Chinese jazz musicians played there. A student of Jerry Bergonzi and George Garzone, Li recorded East Meets West with Bergonzi in Denmark. Made for Adam Huang of the Chinese Jazz Association, as a pair with the Golden Buddha Jazz Group poster. Designed Feb 2016 Tools Adobe Photoshop
10		The Golden Buddha Jazz Group	Chinese Jazz Association	Other Designs	Feb 2016
Other Designs · No. 02 The Golden Buddha Jazz Group Chinese Jazz Association, China Poster for the Beijing band led by pianist Kong Hongwei, “the Golden Buddha”, which blends the Chinese ruan and flute with Western jazz. Made for Adam Huang of the Chinese Jazz Association for the band’s 2016 debut at the Nišville International Jazz Festival in Serbia, the first time Chinese jazz musicians played there. Designed Feb 2016 Tools Adobe Photoshop
09		My Dance Dream	EastWest Dance Theater	Other Designs	Mar 2015
Other Designs · No. 01 My Dance Dream EastWest Dance Theater, USA Poster for My Dance Dream, a ballet performance by the EastWest Dance Theater at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, Maryland. Shown in two versions. Designed Mar 2015 Tools Adobe Photoshop
08		Mr. Skeffington	Vincent Sherman	The Criterion Collection	Mar 2014
The Criterion Collection · No. 04 Mr. Skeffington Vincent Sherman, 1944, USA Honestly, I watched it for Bette Davis, and she is divine: a vain, dazzling beauty who collects suitors, marries for convenience and then has to live without her looks. Davis plays it fearlessly, from ringlets to ruin. The erased eyes on the cover nod to the ending, where only a man who can no longer see still finds her beautiful. Designed Mar 2014 Tools Adobe Photoshop
07		Toccata	Personal project	The Tumblr Years	Aug 2013
The Tumblr Years · No. 04 Toccata Personal project A bold layout for 2013, written entirely by hand: a giant inverted triangle hangs from the top of the page with the menu and a script title inside, and every post below becomes a triangle, alternating point-up and point-down so the grid tessellates. Photo posts are cropped by transparent triangle masks that fade away on hover to reveal the full image; text, quote and media posts are solid triangles with their titles set in italic. The header triangle is pure CSS borders, with no images, and the layout drops to one column on phones. Shown with sample posts of public-domain paintings. Open the live demo. Designed Aug 2013 Tools HTML, CSS
06		Suspiria	Personal project	The Tumblr Years	Jul 2013
The Tumblr Years · No. 03 Suspiria Personal project A single column of white cards on near-black, beside a fixed sidebar of two stacked diamonds: the upper one a window onto a portrait, the lower one a blood-red panel holding the blog’s description, with Roman-numeral page links underneath. Cards have alternating rounded corners and black title tabs. Shown with sample posts of public-domain prints. Open the live demo. Designed Jul 2013 Tools HTML, CSS
05		The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog	Alfred Hitchcock	The Criterion Collection	Jun 2013
The Criterion Collection · No. 03 The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog Alfred Hitchcock, 1927, UK For me, this is the first true Hitchcock film. A silent thriller about a mysterious stranger suspected of being a serial killer, it is strikingly stylish, all fog, shadow and expressionist angles, and it already holds the themes he would return to for the rest of his career: the wrongly accused man, the icy blonde in danger, guilt passed from one character to another, and an audience made complicit in suspicion. Designed Jun 2013 Tools Adobe Photoshop
04		Day Night Day Night	Personal project	The Tumblr Years	Jun 2013
The Tumblr Years · No. 02 Day Night Day Night Personal project A single narrow column of posts on a fixed damask wall, beside a flower-shaped dial whose petals bloom into a circle on hover and open a small menu on click. Each post is a white card with rounded lower corners, set in Cambria with italic grey quotes. Shown with sample posts of public-domain prints. Open the live demo. Designed Jun 2013 Tools HTML, CSS
03		Woland	Personal project	The Tumblr Years	Jun 2013
The Tumblr Years · No. 01 Woland Personal project The whole blog lives inside one card floating on a grey damask wall. On the left, under a sweeping rounded corner, a Song dynasty painting of birds in flight carries the description and a sideways title; hover over it and the text fades out as the menu fades in. On the right, posts scroll inside their own window, so the page itself never moves. The class names are a nod to Bulgakov: the card is .woland and the left panel .begemoth, after the devil and his cat in The Master and Margarita. Shown with sample posts of public-domain prints, enlarged and centered for today’s screens. Open the live demo. Designed Jun 2013 Tools HTML, CSS
02		The Red Shoes	Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger	The Criterion Collection	May 2013
The Criterion Collection · No. 02 The Red Shoes Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1948, UK Criterion’s cover for The Red Shoes leans further into horror than I’d like, so I took matters into my own hands. This is Black Swan before Black Swan: a dancer, a role that consumes her, and ballet as both rapture and ruin. Designed May 2013 Tools Adobe Photoshop
01		Senso	Luchino Visconti	The Criterion Collection	May 2013
The Criterion Collection · No. 01 Senso Luchino Visconti, 1954, Italy Not my favourite film, but a ravishing one to look at. A countess betrays everything for an Austrian officer in 1866 Venice, and Visconti films it like grand opera: Technicolor saturated to the point of painting, every frame lavish, operatic and very Visconti. The cover pairs a still with Hayez’s The Kiss, painted just seven years before the story takes place. Designed May 2013 Tools Adobe Photoshop