Menu & Interface Design

Heaven Adores You

An unofficial menu system for the Elliott Smith documentary. Three screens that feel handmade while keeping the one button everybody presses clear and close.

A DVD main menu reading 'heaven adores you' in hand lettering over a sepia landscape, with round red navigation buttons for scene selection, special features, play movie, languages and bonus tracks, and a small cut-paper figure playing guitar.
Project
Independent concept redesign, separate from the official release
Role
Menu design, collage, hand lettering
Scope
Main menu, scene selection, special features
Tools
Photoshop, Illustrator

Navigation hiding in the collage

Elliott Smith's records sound as if they were assembled by hand in a small room, so the menus are built the same way: torn paper, sepia photographs, hand-drawn type, and a tiny cut-out figure with a guitar standing in the landscape.

What makes DVD menus fascinating is that they're steered with four arrow keys and one button, from across a room. Every target has to be big, clearly selectable, and one press from Play Movie. So the red circles sit on top of the collage, and Play Movie holds the center of the path.

The main menu: 'heaven adores you' hand-lettered over a pale sepia landscape, five red circular buttons across the middle, a small cut-paper guitarist on the left and the word Hollywood at lower right.
Main menu. Five destinations, one obvious default, and the artwork carrying the whole mood.

Same room, different furniture

Scene selection holds the most information, so it stays calm: a grid of four stills and a numbered range, plus one red Menu button parked right where your thumb already rests.

Special features gets to breathe. Two big plates, a walking figure, and generous space that lets the page feel like a scene.

A scene selection screen with SCENE SELECTION hand-lettered at the top, a two-by-two grid of film stills labelled 1-4, 5-8, 9-12 and 13-16, a red MENU button, and a cut-paper figure at the right.
Scene selection. Four plates, four ranges, one way back.
A special features screen with two large film stills labelled for a balloon photoshoot behind the scenes and an Oscar performance, a red MENU button at the left and a collaged figure.
Special features. Fewer targets, bigger plates, same hand.