His Silence (1965) poster is dominated by the monumental inscription, which is hammered above the actors’ heads.
In the poster of Czechoslovakian film The Anxiety (Polish title: ‘Lęk’) the title is strongly united with the theme of the illustration. A rotated ‘ę‘, together with oblique letters, builds strong tension. The photograph is split into panels. Cracks between them make up thin lines, reminiscent of prison bars. The still that served as a base for this project was, as usual, strongly modified.
Posters addressed to those who are not faint-hearted were definitely Zelek’s speciality. The Hunger poster is a perfect example. It refers to the primeval anxiety which comes from beyond people’s consciousness. The etching expresses the essence of starving, which makes people lose their sanity and exposes their deepest and wildest instincts. This state of mania is symbolised by the word ‘hunger’ being hammered into the stark, brainless, anatomical image of a human skull.
The poster for The Birds by Hitchcock, which was Zelek’s debut at the Warsaw Biennale in 1968, was another example of the dark side of his creativity. The ominous flapping of letters and mishmash of various fonts engages the viewer with its synaesthesia. The empty, wide field in the lower part of the composition enhances the effect of an emerging threat, as it is obvious that it will be inevitably filled with incoming black wings. The viewer has to stand face to face with terror and his own fears.
You can find a much more relaxed atmosphere on the In the late afternoon (1964) poster for the Andrzej Ścibor-Rylski film. Actors’ photos are inter-weaved into the text, looking like additional letters. The dense upper part is contrasted with the deserted bottom, creating an intriguing contrast.
There always seems to be a certain idee fixe around which every project is built. First Cry is based on a contrast of black and white and the impression of eavesdropping on the lovers’ whispers. Two Weeks in September's project is entirely set around a diagonal line between two hands. The poster for Polish Film Days is dominated by the idea of asceticism and film reels imitating trains arriving at a platform.
Finally, the poster designed for the 8th International Chopin Piano Competition is one of the most recognised of Zelek’s works and the quintessence of his early style. It is classy, elegant and based on black and white. His later works, however, tend to be more colourful, following the fashion for psychedelia. Their Polish titles are: Popierajcie swego szeryfa (1970), Noc poślubna w deszczu (1968), Wielkamiłość (1970), Chłodnym okiem (1972), Che (1973).
Fonts
Bronisław Zelek was also a creator of acclaimed typefaces. In the early 1970s, he designed the famous Zelek MN font, which has a few types: contour, black, 3D. A few years later he invented Zelek New – a font formed as if it was written with folded ribbon. His fonts were never officially digitalised despite numerous requests and many copies being available on the market (for example, the Cyrillic version by Viktor Kharyk and Lidia Kolesnichenko). This strange-looking slanted font is the most popular of Zelek’s imitators.
Author: Sylwia Giżka, Novomber 2010, Translated by WO 3.02. 2014