Athena — a goddess series
Aishwarya Lekshmi
- Year
- 2024
- Category
- Key Art
- Role
- Concept, compositing, colour & typography
- Tools
- Photoshop
01 — Overview
Actor Aishwarya Lekshmi reimagined as Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom and warfare. Lush hydrangea, warm gold jewellery and a soft violet serif title woven into the portrait — finished with film grain and editorial micro-type.
- Portrait
- Mythology
- Editorial
- Photo manipulation
- Typography
02 — The challenge
Key art has a fraction of a second to stop a scroll. It has to carry a character, a mood and a story in one frame — and still read at thumbnail size.
03 — The solution
A single dominant figure, a restrained palette and display type treated as part of the image. Micro-type, grain and print artefacts add the editorial texture that makes it feel collectable.
04 — Process
How it was made.
Concept
Defining the character, the myth or story behind it, and the one emotion the poster must deliver.
Composition
Blocking the figure, the title and negative space at thumbnail size first, then at full scale.
Compositing
Cut-outs, lighting passes and colour grading to make every layer belong to the same world.
Typography
Display type set into the image, supported by editorial micro-copy, marks and a print finish.
05 — Gallery
1 frameSee the full presentation on Behance.
06 — Palette
Extracted colour.
Clustered from the artwork itself. Each swatch is sized by how much of the image it covers, and the whole site takes on this project's colour while you're here.
