Theatre Posters; Cabaret & Blonde

I've had the good fortune to work on a couple of really fun Poster design projects recently at Derby Theatre; first was a Theatre Arts production of Cabaret, and secondly the (upcoming) Theatre Arts production of 'Blonde'.

The 'Cabaret' poster was one of those rare projects (rare for me at least!) where you are approached with a vague brief, shown a couple of photos and WHAM! an idea just hits you and from the get go it just makes sense. I like it when that happens and I wish it did more often.

Cabaret 2012

If you haven't seen Cabaret, it is set around a Cabaret club in Berlin during the rise of the Nazi party to power. I liked the striking simplicity and symbolism of the final image... I was pleased to be a part of this, the show was fantastic! The students so talented.

Blonde is the next one; a musical based on the story of Marilyn Monroe / Norma Jean. Two of the Theatre Arts students showed up to do the Photoshoot, they were very brave and very sweet! They waltzed in with a cheap plastic wig, red lippy (I seem to remember one of the girls had borrowed it from their Grandmother!) And a big fluffy, towly white dressing gown to serve as a Monroe stylefur coat! I love when things are thrown together like that, it's so much fun and you get that same creative and imaginative rush you get when you are playing make believe as a kid. The photographer was very professional too, especially considering what little he was given to work with (time and brief!) So the shoot went ahead and the girls made even the silly wig look almost glamourous! The images below are the result - now to be a poster!

'Before' of Charlotte (this pose ended up being the chosen final poster image)

'After' The final poster image of Charlotte, inspired by Monroe

'Before' One of my favourites from Taras shoot

'After' Tara, post 'Monroe' treatment!

 I had lots of fun playing with this - messing around in Photoshop and playing with layers and masks and textures is a fun way to spend a couple of evenings!

The Country Child

Wow, it's been a while since I posted! Christmas and the New Year have been really busy. Since October I have been working 7 days & 2 evenings a week (on non-design jobs!) and finally it's getting back to a more manageable pace. I was working on design projects when I could so it's meant alot of very late nights, but I think it's all part of the job! Why else do all designers seem to live on coffee?! I also had limited internet access for a while which in this day and age is disasterous!

So my last post showed early developments of Alison Uttley's 'The Country Child'. Derby Theatre are holding a week long event this summer celebrating her life and books, with a produced version of The Country Child as the main event.

It's been a long time spent working on the poster - Uttley has written some beautiful books (she has been unofficially dubbed as Derbyshire's Beatrix Potter) and undoubtably her writings have touched many people. For these reasons, something delicate and with alot of love put into it is needed to represent her.

So, here are some of the final(ish) images, needs a bit more work on selective contrast etc, and of course poster text to be added, but I am pretty pleased with it. What I love most is that it is totally handmade, the paper sculpture of the girl, my own textures, hand painted type... I found some lovely old wallpaper that I scanned in and messed with for the flowers...

Poster - made to look like a bookpage come to life!

Theatre (Studio) Leaflet version

The web banner version of the poster

Anyway, best get back to work!

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