MEDUSA

Medusa is one of the most misread figures in mythology. Everyone knows the snake hair. Everyone knows the stare that turns you to stone. Almost nobody talks about what was done to her before any of that.

I wanted to make a poster that held both things at once — the terror and the tragedy.

THE IDEA

The brief I set myself was simple. One figure. One poster. Make it impossible to look away.

The challenge with Medusa is that she's been visualized so many times that the default version is almost a cliché — monstrous, grotesque, threatening. I wanted to go the other direction. What if she looked like she was in pain? What if the snakes weren't a weapon but a burden?

That's where the composition started.

THE DESIGN

The figure is central and upward-facing—not attacking, not threatening. Eyes closed. The neon yellow halo sits above the serpents like a broken crown. It's the most deliberate element in the piece. A halo means divinity, protection, and grace. Here it floats above chaos. The contradiction is the point.

The typography runs the full height of the left side—MEDUSA in gold, with a vertical subtitle reading THE GAZE OF THE VENGEANCE. Large enough to be architectural. The type doesn't describe the image. It frames it.

Dark background throughout. The only light sources are the halo and the gold type. Everything else recedes into shadow

THE RESULT

A poster that asks you to reconsider something you thought you already understood. Built in Photoshop. No colour except gold and darkness.