Portrait: Gene Wilder's Willie Wonka

The project brief was to create a portrait design from a well-known figure or icon in history or media. I decided to choose Gene Wilder’s Willie Wonka for nostalgia as well as incorporate the specificity of Gene Wilder’s rendition that directly correlated to the initial film. With this in mind, I drew inspiration from Willie Wonka’s 1971 office space. Wonka’s office was a visual landscape mirroring the character’s psychosis, where the room and its belongings were all cut in half. Adorning his desk was a stone bust which is what I used to mimic Gene Wilder’s persona. Fitted with edible wallpaper and the carpeted red steps Wilder took his summersault, the piece is meant to be a true reflection of the magic he ensued on screen with a setting to match. Using the Chocolate Room as the primary setting, including elements like the Everlasting Gobstopper, The Wondrous Boat, The Fizzy Lifting Room’s fan & bubbles as well as the Glass Elevator and overall factory further drive home the aesthetic and spirit from the 1971 screen adaptation of the 1964 novel, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory.