Howls Moving Castle
An illustration commission for the Studio Ghibli film, Howl’s Moving Castle.
The poster focuses on the ‘home’ aspect of the machine. I did this by contrasting the blue, cold background of the clouds with the warm, orange of the castle. This goes against the usual expectation of metal being cold.
I then added little details to the castle that are important to the story. Howl’s castle changes throughout the film so there was no singular reference image to follow. Despite this, I know I wanted to add little details such as the little white houses and a clothing line.
As for the title, I wanted it to blend in with the machine. The castle is a collection of parts and it seemed appropriate for the title to be so too.
The project was then furthered in to a book sleeve. I had to take apart each layer to see how this would develop.
A major theme of this story is the contrast of light/dark magic. Although the castle is made of cold metals, it is a home and visualises the working of a heart. Therefore, I chose to switch the colours and use warm tones for the castle and contrast it with a cold, rocky environment.
To make the castle appear like it is moving, I made the background landscape stretch throughout the whole book jacket. Then, the title typography reflects the castle being disjointed and having an unsafe structure by being on different levels.
The spine is the same illustration as the cover but with a dark overlay. It shows a night- time scene where the character, Howl, eats a star and begins the chain of events in the story. On the back, the characters Sophie and Turnip Head are years ahead of this event and are seen walking towards both versions of Howl, his past and future.
