the last unicorn
An in-dept study on the film The last Unicorn
This project was made in the course Media Theory. The aim was to work on a piece of media that evokes nostalgia for us. I personally loved The last Unicorn – an animated fantasy film from 1982 – as a child for its beautiful art style and heavy topics that are surprisingly relevant to this day. The biggest impact of this movie for me personally is the depicted perseverance of the last Unicorn although being the last of her kind. A theme closely related to an extincting nature, hope and loss of today’s time.
So the original idea was to analyse the media but i eventually got so sucked in into all the meanings and the source material which being the 1968 book The last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle that is full of metafiction, constantly reflecting on its own fictionality. That combined with the making of the movie – the animation was done in Japan – was so interesting as well that I ended up writing and designing 90 pages over christmas holiday.
I picked the most stunning screencaps from the movie and a color palette. I fairly did not consider contrast much as back then I did not think of this as something that actually needed to be read but rather just looked at and so i prioritized the feel rather than readability – something that i would do differently today
One thing I did put a focus on was to try to find a layout-based way to show cohesiveness throughout the pages but still making every page look different in arrangement without leaving the grid too much. I also highlighted the spoken dialogue lines against my own written description and analysis. The very last thing I added were the ornaments that are visible very lightly on every page based on one ornament that is split into pieces.
One thing I did put a focus on was to try to find a layout-based way to show cohesiveness throughout the pages but still making every page look different in arrangement without leaving the grid too much. I also highlighted the spoken dialogue lines against my own written description and analysis. The very last thing I added were the ornaments that are visible very lightly on every page based on one ornament that is split into pieces.
Course: Media Theory 1
Information Design Bachelor [3rd Semester]
FH JOANNEUM Graz