The Truman Show
Design Studio
BLT Communications
United States, founded 1992
Creative Director
Dawn Baillie
Art Director
Dawn Baillie
Designer
Steven Stewart
Artist
Eric Rosenberg
Photographer
Paul Sopocy
Photographer
Melinda Sue Gordon
Photographer
Robert Cameron
Client
Paramount Pictures
Date1998
Dimensions40 x 27 in. (101.6 x 68.6 cm)
ClassificationsPoster
Credit LineGift of Dawn Baillie, Poster House Permanent Collection
Object numberPH.8161
DescriptionFor The Truman Show campaign, Paramount challenged BLT’s creative groups to develop different compositions that would convey the essence of the film without revealing too much of the story. Designer Dawn Baillie had the idea to show the lead character doing something mundane, like sleeping, on a giant screen below the word “LIVE” as the world watched. The success of this image helped solidify Dawn’s relationship with the producer Scott Rudin, and they went on to work together on dozens of film and theater projects over the subsequent decades. Rather than use any of the special photography of Jim Carrey taken for earlier promotional comps, the image is unit photography combined with stock images of Chicago, a crowd, and a helicopter. By the late 1990s, Photoshop had advanced enough to allow much more complex design builds. This poster involves dozens of photographs put together through numerous layers—a technique that would have been impossible just a few years earlier. Prior to this, a designer would have had to order photographs, strip them out of their original context, and airbrush between each individual image to make them appear seamless. Even then, the design would appear more static and collage-like than this final composition.
On View
On view
