To mark the release of upcoming film Rebecca, Netflix can today reveal mesmerising alternative artwork designed by renowned British graphic designer Julian House. The artwork is the latest collaboration between House, also known for his work with Peter Strickland, Lynne Ramsay and Primal Scream, and the film’s director Ben Wheatley. It will be rolled out as the new book cover for the classic novel in conjunction with the film’s release.
Speaking of the collaboration, Ben Wheatley remarks that “working with Julian House is always a great pleasure. He lives and breathes design. I’ve admired him for years. His work with primal scream was a big influence on me. Recently I’ve really enjoyed his ghost box designs and his work with Peter Strickland.”
Julian House used an old school optical photographic technique to create the underwater typography of the opening and closing titles:
“Being able to also produce a poster which has a synergy with the title sequence is ideal, to have a visual language that reaches across several aspects of a film campaign. The poster shares the same typography and has a fractured dream quality that reflects the story. We produced multiple options using different surreal graphic devices.. fractured mirrors, double exposures, disorientating changes in scale and location.
The main thing they all share is a relationship between the three main characters. The romantic image of Mr and Mrs de Winter is thrown off balance by the shadowy presence of Mrs Danvers. Collage and montage allow you to hint at the psychological undercurrents of a story.”
After a whirlwind romance in Monte Carlo with handsome widower Maxim de Winter, a newly married young woman arrives at Manderley, her new husband’s imposing family estate on a windswept English coast. Naive and inexperienced, she begins to settle into the trappings of her new life, but finds herself battling the shadow of Maxim’s first wife, the elegant and urbane Rebecca, whose haunting legacy is kept alive by Manderley’s sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers.
