A visual identity created for a film retrospective dedicated to Andrzej Wajda — one of the most significant directors in the history of Polish and European cinema. The season ran over several months at Cinéma Le Reflet Médicis in the Latin Quarter, Paris, organised by the Polish Institute in Paris in collaboration with FINA and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
The central idea came from Wajda himself — or rather, from watching him work. Archival on-set photographs, stacked like film frames, trace the movement of his hands, his gestures, his way of conducting a scene. Opposite this: a large, joyful portrait of actress Elżbieta Czyżewska against a spinning carousel — dynamic, expressive, unposed. Together they form the visual tension the identity is built on: the director's precision against the actor's freedom.
The colour palette is deliberately bold — fluorescent Pantone pink, cyan, magenta, and red, anchored by heavy black typography. A nod to the energy of Wajda's films, and to the posters of Polish cinema's golden era.
Deliverables include a poster that unfolds into a full printed programme, cinema slides (photographed in situ), social media formats, and a teaser animation that brings the archival frames to life.
The teaser opens on Daniel Olbrychski — running, horses, dust — the entire romanticism and freedom of Wajda's cinema distilled into a single image. What follows is a one-minute sequence that echoes the title cards of Polish film's golden era: typography arriving with weight and intention, archival gestures of the director animated into modernist compositions, a sweep through the retrospective's programme. The colour identity — fluorescent pink, cyan, magenta, red — pulses through every frame. An original score composed by Aleksander Makowski was created exclusively for the piece.
