Drama Department Poster & Playbill
My client, the Walla Walla University drama department, wanted me to create a poster that could be hung around campus and in the community to promote the play. The Ground We Lost featured two separate plays, so I needed to illustrate the separation between them. Additionally, I was tasked with formatting and creating the playbill for performances. The main goal was to attract attention, visibility, and create a cohesive brand for the plays.
For research, I discussed the storyline of each play with the student producer and what her vision was for the poster. I utilized a mood board she had created for the plays, to help understand her vision. I did research on my own about each play to help better understand the storyline and its themes. Lastly, I researched playbills to better understand the aesthetics of theatre design.
At the beginning of the design process, I made rough sketches of key concepts and themes related to each play. From there I began assembling ideas and shapes I wanted to compile to create the poster. I made a rough poster design, and after notes from the student director I moved in a different direction.
To communicate the themes of dirt and fire within the play, I used warm tones such as reds and browns. Additionally, I used textures and organic lines to create movement and visual interest in the poster. To demonstrate the unity between the two plays, I also used a gradient of the reds and browns within the title.
Theatre playbill heavily relies on fonts to promote and tell the story of the production. Therefore, I did lots of font research until I settled on Nickel from Adobe fonts. Nickel has an old-fashioned quality to it that could belong in a 1930’s news headline which fit the era of the first play. However, its unique serifs provide a more modern feel that also matches with the second play set in more recent years.
