CALL OF THE WILD | 20th CENTURY FOX
SANTA CLARA & SKAGUAY EXTERIOR SETS
CALL OF THE WILD opens on a period newspaper I designed for the props department — its sled dog illustration, created by production designer Stephan Duchant, comes to life in the opening sequence to deliver the film’s backstory. That moment transitions the audience into turn-of-the-century Santa Clara, California — recreated on Universal’s Western Town backlot — setting the tone for the world that follows.
My work on Call of the Wild took place on entirely practical sets — physical spaces built to capture the textures and materials of the early 1900s. I designed period graphics that helped root each location in a believable world: hand-painted signage, props, and printed ephemera that reflected daily life both in period Santa Clara, California and a Yukon town.
The film opens on a period newspaper that establishes the tone of the story and the world it takes place in. I designed the layout and typography using turn-of-the-century sources, pairing bold display type with uneven column structure to feel printed on a hand-fed press. The sled-dog illustration came from production designer Stefan Dechant and was integrated into the masthead to connect the newspaper visually to the larger narrative.
The western town sequence was built on the Universal backlot—one of the few environments created entirely in-camera. I produced the on-set graphics for the storefronts and signage, working with the art director and scenic department to place each element within the existing architecture. Everything was scaled, printed, or painted specifically for how it would read through the lens, giving the town its texture and sense of history.
The hand-painted signs in both the Santa Clarita set and the Yukon town were first designed digitally in Adobe Illustrator. After approval, I converted the graphics into files for pounces and chose the paint colors. Working closely with the scenic team, we used the pounces to faithfully bring my digital designs to life on set.
