Interview with Anahit Petrosyan
Our Movie Poster design challenge winner Anahit Petrosyan reveals the key characteristics of her winning poster, gives hints to its secrets, and shares her plans for the future
September 19, 2019 | by Creative Armenia
CA: Tell us a little about your movie poster for Creative Armenia. What was your approach to this challenge? What did you want to convey through your poster?
AP: When thinking about the design of the movie poster, first of all, I was trying to imagine the plot and the characters of the movie. The actions should have taken place in our reality — that’s what the name of the challenge implied. The architectural elements, buildings, electric columns and wires, and all the components prompt that this is Armenia.
When deciding the style, I got inspired by French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard’s movies and brought them into our reality. With the poster, I wanted to address problems such as emigration and unemployment as well as financial hardships that youth face. Through the poster of an imaginary movie, I wanted to convey the idea that no matter how gray and oppressive the present may seem, there are always creative solutions and the possibility of a soft jump.
CA: The movie called Creative Armenia is imaginary. What’s your Creative Armenia about? Give us a short synopsis.
AP: The movie is about a young man trying to find his path of life. Despite having an academic degree, he cannot realize his ideas and faces various difficulties. Public opinion, daily survival, and the dreams of a brighter future fill his days with various thoughts. In the poster you can notice buildings typical to Soviet Modernism, which, despite their uniqueness, are reminiscent of the disciplined and rigid life of the past from which you can escape with a fearless jump. The electric column and its wires accompany the man everywhere. Seems that the wires are the veins of the city — wherever he goes, they are with him, recording his path.
CA: Tell us about your artistic background and career.
AP: Since childhood, I have loved art and culture. When I was little, I attended music school to learn classical vocal singing. Then, I discovered the world of design and started to live within it. I studied at National University of Architecture and Construction of Armenia majoring in graphic design. I reached bigger achievements when I participated in an international design seminar in Italy, where I was working on a conceptual design plan for public spaces where cultural events could take place.
However, the most fruitful period of my creative career began when working at Zangak Publishing House, where I create book covers for Armenian publications of fiction and non-fiction books, including Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, and many others.
CA: What was the most challenging part of the Movie Poster design challenge?
AP: The difficulty of the Movie Poster design challenge was the fact that there were no actual limitations, which gave an infinite spectrum of creativity. However paradoxical it may sound, when you can do everything, quite often the decisions are hard to make. Hence, I have spent more time developing the plot and the character of the movie rather than working on the poster.
CA: What is your long-term vision for your creative career?
AP: Professional striving always haunts me, and I'm never fully satisfied with my knowledge. I intend to become more experienced in the sphere of design and illustration. I have initiated new projects that I will announce soon. In the near future, I would like to teach and establish a design studio.