A CLOUD IN TROUSERS

This poster was inspired by the art of the Russian Avant-garde movement from the 1890's-1930s.
It is based on futurist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky's first major poem, "A Cloud in Trousers." 
He was famous for being one of the artists who contributed the most to the Russian Avant-garde movement,
and I wanted to create an homage to him and the movement overall.

ABOUT TWO SQUARES

The idea of the two squares in the poster came from El Lissitzky's "About Two Squares."
He is also one of the artists who contributed the most to the Russian Avant-garde movement.
He was a friend of Mayakovsky and they had collaborated together several times, so representing them both visually on the same poster made sense.
Vladimir's life was full of drama and a strong contrast of love and hate, signified here by the black and red squares.

FOCAL POINT

I purposefully picked this photograph of Vladimir because I thought the strong gaze of the subject would be an arresting focal point.
To me, the eyes are full of love, hate, anger, sadness, and passion for the revolution that he was a part of.
I didn't have to use much text to describe the poem because of the power of this portrait.