Sky TV's announcement for the UK Release for Series 2 of A Discovery of Witches (January 2021) got us to reminiscing about the fabulous UK print campaign featured in newspapers, magazines and on public transportation in and around London, and fantasizing about what the next one may look like.
The individual responsible, Greg Coulton, really didn't get the credit his beautiful work deserves. An illustrator, designer and typographer, Greg has been meticulously hand drawing intricate logos and branding campaigns for a variety of clients for over 20 years. His designs are ornate and fantastical, rife with Baroque detailing. He lives by the maxim, "The devil is in the details" and it shows in the campaign he designed for ADOW, mining traditional alchemical texts for inspiration. His reinventions are so rich and detailed, we went down the rabbit hole to his sources.
Let's break down some of the images and their inspirations, shall we?
The Serpent of Arabia - The Ripley Scroll
Venice (location of the Congregation drawn in Mary Sidney's
Putre Factio ("Purification") - Johann Mylius
Anatomia coitus - Johann Mylius ("Anatomia Auri")
The Chemical Wedding - Splendor Solis
The Alchemical Child - Kawaii (love the modern influence here)
The Arbor Dianae - straight from Mary Sidney's lab
Informational Links:
- See all of Greg's work here - https://www.gregcoulton.com/
- Chatting Alchemy with the Getty Alchemists - https://blogs.getty.edu/iris/your-questions-about-alchemy-from-its-origins-to-the-philosophers-stone-answered/
- View some of the digital alchemical treatises discussed here: Atalanta Fugiens - https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/pc289j53n
- The Splendor Solis - http://www.hermetics.org/solis.html
- The Ripley Scroll - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Ripley_Scroll.JPG
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