Shoestring Magic Poster Art (Part 1)

by Jordan Morris
Producer / Production Designer The Duchess of Malfi directed by Bernard Hopkins

So... next up... I need to create a very original and fetching / eye-catching/ provocative poster for this very special show.

For the record, I love poster art and I also hate poster art. My love comes from the film industry. I grew up coveting movie poster art and I still do.
For the most part, I'm a bit of a poster snob. I'm well aware that local theatre has only modest resources available, but it seems that promotional art often suffers the most. I rarely see a poster that really looks professional enough to stand up to any comparison with Hollywood or even TV efforts. And rarer still do I see a poster that actually compels me to attend a show that I wouldn't otherwise consider. (Which is part of what they are supposed to do) Most often, local theatre uses poster art simply as a posted notice and it most often lacks the artistry that would make you want to hang it on a wall. It's just not considered important enough for most production companies around these parts. And arguably it involves a specialized skill that this community doesn't have or feel the need to focus on.

Having said all that, I'm fully aware of the fact that I've now squarely panted a target on my back... but so be it.
Live by the sword, die by the sword, right? :)

I'm a visual artist of sorts, but I've never brought my skills into the 21st century. I still use paper and pencil for most of my design work. I own a complete Adobe Photoshop suite, but I have no clue how to use it, so creating the typography used in a poster design is a bit of a challenge for me. And I'm going to show you now how you can create at least the foundation of that kind of typography using almost medieval skills (and a camera).

I'll fast forward a bit. I started by finding a font (text style) that I could modify. There's bunch of online resource sites that allow you to 'sample' from their vast catalogs. I do it all the time. There are literally hundreds of thousands and I've lost many hours to shopping fonts. For Malfi I wanted something that had a sense of history to it, and also adequate visual drama, but nothing too gothic looking. That's all a matter of personal taste of course. I found one I liked and then printed all the words used in the title "The Duchess of Malfi" in several sizes on separate sheets of paper. Already you can see I'm doing this all rather backwards. Why not just create a document and arrange them all on the computer you say? Because that's not how my mixed-up brain works.

Now for the photos:

Shoestring Magic Poster Art (Part 1) - The Magic of Malfi

So I used the text I printed out and cut out each word so I could arrange them on a big sheet of white poster board. I then took an EMPTY mechanical pencil and traced the letters, pushing down so hard that I left an impression of the image on the white board.

Then I spent some time altering the font sufficiently so that:

A) The design would be unique to our poster
B) The words fit together more snugly making a more cohesive design.

The next step was to cut out every letter.

Pictured above is a 99 cent dollar store knife which will work. It's terrible, but I ran out of blades for my good knife.
(I have since restocked and will be better equipped for round 2)

With a little care, the cut out letters leave a lovely, crisp image behind.

I did it all by hand, not even employing a metal ruler. I can tell you for a fact, it won't matter if you cut perfectly straight lines as long as it's pretty close.

And this is what it looked like in the end.

Because it's effectively a stencil, I'm making, I had to redesign the letters so that the centres of 'O's and such don't fall out. At this point, I'll have to redesign the 'D' in Duchess. I'm not happy with it. I've bled out some of it's power by breaking the top plane of it. I like how I've attached that peanut-shaped white piece in the centre at it's bottom, but not at the top. That needs more work.
Anyway...

Then I took the final product, cut down the big sheet so that it was tall and narrow - something I thought would create more drama (mistake - I'll leave that for photo-cropping when I do my next attempt)
and hung it in front of a second, uncut piece of white poster board.
(see below)
Shoestring Magic Poster Art (Part 1) - The Magic of Malfi

It's not too shabby. Add some moody lighting, and voila... you've got a good leg up on some crisp typography.
Next time I'll spend more time with the lighting and I'll place the image more centrally in the poster board so I can better control the shadowing effect. The 'F' and 'I' almost disappear because too much light spilled in between the layers.

The white will play an important role in our production, and I used white on purpose for that reason, but you can goof around with a ton of other colours (whatever colours poster board comes in - or can be painted) if you needed more colour. OR.. you can do it all with simple computer filters when you import the photo to your computer.

That's how you force skills that are not necessarily applicable to the task to work for you and not against you.
pursuit of our poster. Next up: round 2!

Thanks for reading!

A Satisfied Tenant is Our Greatest Asset!

* Farhi Holdings is a proud sponsor of
the London Community Players production of The Duchess of Malfi

Our stage production is
Executive Produced
by the
London Community Players
and will run at their home venue,
The Palace Theatre
in February 2011
.

JordanMorris	Latest page update: made by JordanMorris , Nov 24 2010, 3:46 PM EST (about this update About This Update Moved from: The Magic of Malfi Home - JordanMorris No content added or deleted. - complete history)
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