Taru sormusten herrasta (The Lord of the Rings)

Concept design and key art

Tolkien's epic takes the Finnish theatre stage in unprecedented scale

Client: Turku City Theatre

Project: Taru Sormusten Herrasta (the Lord of the Rings)

Year: 2017-2018

Turku City Theatre was staging its biggest production yet, a Finnish version of the Lord of the Rings (Taru Sormusten Herrasta). The ads for the play needed to depict the grand scale of the production, which meant bringing the fantasy world to life even though no costumes or set design existed.

We devised a simple campaign focusing on grand scale adventure: characters on the road to Mordor. Based on a rough sketch of the poster featuring the character of Frodo flanked by Gandalf, Aragorn, Galadriel and Arwen, the talented theatre professionals set to work on executing the vision in time for the photoshoot. I created a photo composite of the road to Mordor with Mount Doom looming in the distance, while photographer Otto-Ville Väätäinen photographed each actor and blended the characters into the composite.

The sheer scale of the production was unprecedented for Turku City Theatre, and a massive investment for any Finnish theatre. The theatre management wanted the scale and ambition of the production to be reflected in the marketing materials, allowing us the rarity of producing separate campaign imagery to showcase the each of the main characters.

The campaign surpassed the theatre's goal of 50% of tickets sold before the premiere, driving ticket sales to surpass 60 % prior to the premiere. The play was largely sold out during its entire run.