MinaLima is behind the in-film graphic design of The Imitation Game, which has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Production Design at this weekend’s Oscars.
The consultancy, which specialises in graphic design for film was lead graphic designer on The Imitation Game creating all graphic props.
The Imitation Game is the dramatised account of Alan Turing’s attempts to crack codes encrypted by the Nazi’s Enigma machine during the Second World War.
MinaLima directors Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima were appointed by Maria Djurkovic who was production designer on The Imitation Game.
The consultancy created materials that were reflective of the time as well as the post-war era, which also features in the film.
This includes props such as newspapers and war-time posters as well as well as the paperwork, sketches and plans that Turing (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) makes.
Designed items range form small paper ephemera such as bus tickets to a puzzle booklet and larger pieces like the 20-foot maritime map used to plot U-boat attacks.
Mina says: “There’s stuff cited in the script you have to make sure is there and sometimes you also have to think, ‘What else would be in that scene?’”
The graphics were created over 4 months from July – December 2013 and involved research trips to Bletchley Park and London’s museums including The British Museum and Imperial War Museums’ Churchill War Rooms.
Mina says: “At Bletchley Park we were able to see archival material of Alan Turing’s work. There was only a little bit of his notation and thinking, but even from a little you can create more.”
In the film Turing’s House is filled with the ephemera associated with his work – machines, equipment and notations.
“We had to visually explain this with a top layer of graphics and show the sum of his thinking,” says Mina.
The Crossword used by Turing to recruit cryptographers to Bletchley Park.
Puzzle book read by boy on the train.
Identity cards for those at Bletchley Park.
Turing’s notes and schematic sketches at his desk at Bletchley Park.
Map in Hut 8 at Bletchley Park.
Zygalsky sheets , Intercepted messages and paperwork dressing in Hut 8.
Turing’s notes and schematic drawings in his house. Some of the drawings were based on Turing’s real sketches, allowed by Turing’s estate.
Pressed leaves and sketches in Turing’s house.
Cigarette boxes and train tickets for background dressing.
Notebook making.
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