“I have chosen the words ‘Star-crossed’ (written as StarXed) because in Romeo and Juliet, star-crossed means that fate is against the two lovers, showing how destiny leads to their sad ending. Today, this idea matters because it shows how love can struggle against many outside problems. It helps us understand how important it is to be strong and make good choices.”

“Passion can be something found both in the spur of the moment or a lifelong journey in order to find passion. For Romeo and Juliet specifically, their romance and passion comes from a moment of sudden decisiveness. Romeo and Juliet only meet for so long yet they’ve made this adjudication as young individuals to be together no matter what. I feel that passion is a word overtly present in both the play of Romeo and Juliet and society. Society is a never ending developing place, as trends change, people change, and especially technology changes. Technology has shaped the world around us, but slowly and inadvertently, technology has also attempted to become like us. With the rise of AI, every art piece and written work made by a person has been used to train a computer to ‘recreate’ the same life that blooms from their works. AI is a growing industry and is being pushed out to the public sector more as the years pass, especially in media and work environments. Passion is even more important in today’s society, to push no matter what and to sharpen mankind’s sword of talent in the adversity of AI. It can’t capture the same life in its work as mankind’s passion, only a sheer imitation can be made. Like Romeo and Juliet’s passion, the world must dream and pursue passion no matter what, even if adversity stands at the forefront of passion.”

“I chose the word ‘Peace’, because in the play the grudge between both families Montague and Capulet causes violence and fights between the two families, making Romeo and Juliet star-crossed lovers. Only the lovers’ tragic death brings peace to both of the families. It tells us that sometimes Peace requires overcoming hate and fostering understanding. Another reason that I chose the word Peace is because of Tybalt’s famous line, ‘Peace? I hate the word, as I hate Hell, all Montagues and thee.’”

“I used the words ‘Sweet Sorrow’ for my graffiti. I initially chose ‘Sweet Sorrow’ as it was still at the top of my mind, from watching The Celebrity Traitors – when Alan Carr murdered Celia Imrie with ‘parting is such sweet sorrow’. Then when I started to do the draft drawings, I realised how much these two words capture the whole play – with the ‘sweetness’ of love and the ‘sorrow’ of death. And because there is so much death in the play, I thought it would work to have the letters dripping in red blood! When I started to do the graffiti, I thought that the double letters in each word –  ‘e’ and ‘r’ – could be used to link into the play even more, so I stacked the double ‘e’ and ‘r’ up in each word, to try and represent the balcony scene, which is where this quote comes from in the play. I used red, gold and blue as the main colours for the graffiti. I chose these colours as blue is quite often associated with Romeo and the Montague house; while reds and golds and regal colours are quite often used to represent the passion of the Capulets.”

“‘Hanging in the stars’ reflects the idea that Romeo and Juliet’s future is controlled by fate. The floating, spaced style can suggest something out of reach, like destiny deciding things for them.”

“From the quote ‘parting is such sweet sorrow’ by Juliet. The words ‘sweet sorrow’ stood out to me because of its contrasting meaning of something nice and sweet to something sad or sorrowful. This brings out the complexity in life that even the happiest times can become sad, and that that sadness is sprinkled with some sort of sweetness and kindness. Something beautiful amidst the gloom.”

“When you think of graffiti, you will probably think of swear words of racist comments. I have taken this idea and put it in the sense of Romeo and Juliet’s time. The phrase ‘Biting your thumb’ is an action worse than the middle finger, and I thought that would be a unique phrase to base my graffiti art on.”

“The reason I picked ‘Love’ and ‘War’ is because those are the two main themes of the play. I chose the main colours to be red and blue to represent the Montagues and Capulets in the play. The word ‘Love’ has the dripping blood to show how Romeo and Juliet’s love has consequences. Not only are the words relevant to the play but they are relevant to real life with all the wars in today’s modern society tearing loving families apart. And maybe love can be an answer.”

“I chose the word ‘Dignity’ because a lot of the events that happen in the play is because people don’t want to lose their dignity or nobility.”

“I think Romeo’s words in Act 3 Scene 1 after killing Tybalt are important in the play because it relates to the theme of the events of the play being fate and out of his control; bad things happened to him and he felt like fate was bullying him.”