The poster was commissioned by the Ukraine Millennium Foundation for Luminous Voices—Calgary's premiere professional chamber choir that featured sacred compositions by prominent Ukranian composer, Artem Vedel

Byzantine art is rife in Ukraine, and hard to escape when creating visuals for a sacred concert. I used a classic mosaic figure of the Byzantine Christ, but thought it unusual to just focus on its most striking detail—the eyes. Matching that starkness with equally stark typography which echoed hues from the mosaic, to me, was the best approach, especially after having listened to some recordings of maestro Vedel. I used typographic 'incidents' to create an imaginary line leading down from the eyes to create a visual sequence in the text.

The client (UMF) was very surprised by the layout, and was not what they had expected, having commissioned artists in the past. It was easy to create abbreviated versions of the poster for Facebook banners and the like. The concert was a great success and was well attended.

This is part of a poster series for Spiritus Chamber Choir's 2013-2014 season.

This being a lenten version of Messiah, the choice of purple for a background was an easy one. The typography is a delicate balancing act, particularly fitting the names 'George' and 'Frideric' in the spaces flanking the diaeresis of the umlaut (which is why I chose his lesser-known birth name, which needed less massaging to fit. The stylized crown of thorns above was necessary, not just for balance, but for the audience to remember the suffering of the crucifixion without resorting to more graphic means.