In his solo exhibition Affiche Plaisir, graphic designer Adam Abd El Ghaffar offers a selection of new posters for well known Egyptian films
Adam Abd El Ghaffar is displaying his work in a solo exhibition named Affiche Plaisir in Gallery Misr until the end of Ramadan.
Showcasing redesigns of posters from iconic Egyptian movies is a rather new creative endeavour that this young Egyptian artist with a background in advertising and graphic design has decided to take on.
In the statement accompanying the display, the artist says that the traditional commercial role of the film poster is changing and the artists should take the lead to define its new function.
Ahram Online met with Adam Abd El Ghaffar in an attempt to understand more about his artistic vision.
Ahram Online (AO): After a career of ten years in the commercial advertising field, why this shift to exhibit in an art gallery?
Adam Abd El Ghaffar (AAG): Painting was my hobby since childhood, though I did not study art academically. I graduated from the faculty of commerce, then I started working in a print house in the graphic design field. I took many courses and I became a professional designer working for renowned advertising companies.
Though advertising is a creative field, you do not really express yourself beyond the limits of the commercial requirements. For example, I love cinema, and I wanted to draw alternative posters for my favourite films. At the beginning I did think about an exhibition. I designed four posters for the films by director Marawan Hamed and sent them to the director. He liked them and suggested that I continue. This is how it started.
I had my first exhibition in Egypt in 2015, followed by an exhibition in Lebanon where I included ten Lebanese film posters. I also exhibited in Tunisia with a few more Tunisian film posters. I believe that my works represent a different perspective of how the film poster can look.
AO: Your style differs from what we see in the posers’ design field on a large scale. Do you think your design style could be adopted in this sector?
AAG: Poster art is known around the world but in Egypt we use posters only as an advertising tool not as an art that could express certain ideas or directions. In the 1990s, people hung on the walls posters that included representations of their favourite stars. This is where it ended.
Moreover, the role of the poster has changed throughout the decades. Now people watch the trailers, hence the visual function of the posters has changed as well. As follows, it is time to change how the posters look. My idea is to go more minimalistic, to use fewer items to express the concept of the film, while keeping the artistic value as a creative function.
