Some Brigadoon stuff...

The idea being tossed around for Brigadoon is the cover of worn out suitcase. Instead of just

overlaying some text on the image I thought about trying something different.

After deciphering a poorly written tutorial I came with these tags that will be 'attached' to final

suitcase image. To give an extra effect I downloaded a 'sticky tape' brush that I

on applying when all is said and done.

Don't let it fool you these weren't as easy to do as they look. Initially at least...

Christmas Carol III

Learning from the formatting mistakes of the previous poster, I created two separate documents. The one on the left is what will be seen for the postcards, while the one on the right for the posters themselves.

Since I last posted, there has been some significant changes. Firstly, the addition of the wooden border. For me at least, this helps reinforce the idea of looking through a window. Also the holly has been tweaked to give it a more 'painterly' feel to it.

Using the St. Nicholas font I downloaded I tried to go for a more Christmasy feel to it. I feel this to be significant as in my original design I tried to stay away from an overtly holiday feel.

Christmas Carol--II

Today, most of the work was done on the border, trying to make it more realistic. Using a variety

of brushes and textures. In doing this I found a composition I was comfortable with. Adding the Holly into the lower right hand corner was a suggestion Jerre had early on about this poster. With any luck there won"t be that many changes with this one....

Christmas Carol

Having some helpful early feedback, I've been able to work with this design more in terms of what the dept. wants. Some of the feedback has been helpful (borders, christmas holly), while other have not (a white shadow?)

In any case, I've been playing with a few tutorials to give the image a frosted window look to it. This to a degree has been more challenging as I feel the need to challenge myself with each design. While to some this may seem like nothing very difficult, it is when you've never done it.

So far I'm pleased with the results, and have already sent the image to Jerre for approval.

Now if only I can escape from the serial killer vibe this tends to give me. Perhaps the holly will

add a nice touch...

Update: "Brigadoon"

For this poster I have decided to do an entire rewrite. The original poster was rushed as it was nearing the end of the previous semester. In retrospect, the previous iteration was more or less a comp. version as it also very simple in design.

With this new iteration, the shadows been removed along with the fake-looking clouds. In their place, I decided to add a simple image of some bagpipes with the potential of a passport or map on the bottom front area of the bagpipes. While this design loses the romantic tone present in the original, it makes up for it in the mysteriousness of the items on the page.

The font was another major aspect that needed to changed. If one were to look closely at the final
rendition of the previous poster, each used the same font. This is something I've since strived to change as each poster hopefully will not interfere with the original design.

Jerre has not looked at this poster as of yet.

Update: "A Christmas Carol"

The original rendition of this poster left out any and all Christmas like imagery in hopes of avoiding an overtly Christmas theme. With the title "A Christmas Carol" this proved to be difficult. Originally wanting to convey a sense of the unknown I seemed to have forgotten the tone of the play itself.

Discussing this with Jerre, he agreed with the majority of my concerns. After showing him this revised sketch, he apparently loved the idea of the snow being on the floor. Lately I've been thinking about keeping the hardwood floor (?) a tone of ice blue. This would keep in line with the wintry setting and the ice skating scene in the story. As far as font and placement are concerned I'm going with the same placement all around in keeping with the placement of the previous poster.

The other idea Jerre suggested was to incorporate the shadow from the previous poster. this might be a good idea giving the sense of mystery that I originally desired.

More to come...

Update: "A Christmas Carol"

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern - Final Poster

Lesson 1: What the Client wants, the Client gets...

In graphic design, just as it is with any business providing a service this is the golden rule. Regardless of how badly mangled the initial composition may be. In this case the addition of the chalk drawings take away from the flow of the initial piece.

Inspired by the font used in the title, those who chose said font thought to incorporate a more humorous feel to the design. Granted adding this aspect might have been a good idea, in hindsight it totally deviates from the initial feel of the poster - that of dread and mystery (in my opinion at least).

The placement of the hand is supposed to illustrate a falling coin from the hand of its owner. The foot, the second character (whomever is which is left up to interpretation..) being represented by the partially visible foot.

While destroying what I felt as a good sense of flow, the design is far from completely destroyed. In the end the design doesn't look half bad to the untrained eye, but for those in the art community and for this designer especially it represents something else entirely.

....a compromised design

Changes

Wanting to incorporate a David Bowie reference in the headline, suddenly I forgot the words...

Anyways, back to business.

Speaking with Jerre, I believe we have narrowed the initial eight potentials into 2 contenders for the final Rosencrantz and Guildenstern poster. With much luck students and faculty will be seeing one of these all around campus and quite possibly beyond.

Next up some revisions to Christmas Carol and Brigadoon -- mostly in sketch form.

Still haven't started reading Summer and Smoke, but hope to within the next few days.

More to come...

1 Month Later

Entering week 3(?) of the fall semester, things have picked up in terms of workload.

This blog is a continuation of my previous blog. As the semester progresses, updates as to progress and lessons learned will be discussed along the way.

Having met with Jerre Briske, the department head last week, the groundwork for the majority of the semester has largely been set.

Things discussed for each of the posters:

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

-Font to be updated: more contemporary format, less focus on old english.

-Add contact information on bottom of page, play dates under title.

A Christmas Carol

-Font possibly updated: fits with the overall tone and feel of play thus far.

-Add contact information on bottom of page, play dates under title.

-Incorporate more Christmas: incorporate holly into composition

-Lose the candle: design element that hasn't worked thus far, holly might be used as

replacement.

-Background image: new vector based template for a floor design - possibility.

Brigadoon

-Font possibly updated: incorporate kilt patterns into title.

-Revision of design: more Irish, less mystical.

Summer and Smoke

-Font possibly updated: does not feel right with atmosphere of play.

-Background: lose the fence, incorporate a fountain in the shape of an angel crying.

-Color scheme is close to desired atmospheric feel.

More to come..including pictures...

End Of Summer Semester

With the summer semester approaching a blazing ending (weather and time..) I feel very fortunate that I will be continuing this class (to certain degree) in the fall, this will hopefully give me more time to 'tweak' what I've already done. In the time allotted I have been able to accomplish much, but nearly enough of what I would have liked to do. I'm very happy with how 'Rosencrantz' has turned out, as well as 'Christmas Carol.'

For the 'Christmas Carol poster, further revisions are to come as apparently the light from the candle doesn't seem to align with the shadow. Another aspect I would probably change is the font, as it's too similar to the font used for either 'Rosencrantz' or 'Brigadoon.'

For 'Brigadoon' the relative newcomer to the group, I wanted to convey a sense of mystery with this poster. Originally the idea was incorporate a postcard motif and work from there. Having met with Joseph, it was decided that I work from the theme I 'found' myself working in. If one were to analyze all three the central image is in the bottom left hand corner. For most people that means the natural flow would lead upwards and to the right.

Having worked with this idea I decided to depict a 'lover's embrace' if you will splashed against the moonlight. I'm still playing with the moon as I'm not quite pleased with the overall look as of yet. I am however pleased with the could cover around the moon. Originally planning on constructing a cloud in illustrator, I stumbled upon a snazzy set of brushes that made a more realstic form of cloud cover. One idea that could work however is combining the two ideas, incorporating a blend/blur into the illustrator file and then going over with the brush to give it more volume.

But what's that you say there was supposed to be FOUR posters and not three? Why yes there actually is, given time constraints due to some unforeseen circumstances I was only able to come up with a rough idea for 'Summer and Smoke,' having known very little about this story I hope that given it's an incomplete idea, it conveys the story's feel regardless.

Knowing very little about the story I found a general sense of isolation in the lead character's due to their flaws. In looking images this one drew me in the most. Attempting to mirror said theme of islolation I simply changed the color of the post. I also color timed the picture as the original had more of a April/Spring feel and not the summer one that I desired.

In the end this semester has gone by at a blazing pace and I look foward to what happens next. Perhaps Jerry and I could finally meet and see where this will go. Until next time, more to come...

First Two Posters

After my last meeting, Joesph and I came to the conclusion that while the borders looked nice, they largely took the attention off of the composition as a whole. So in effect, this was the major change in the overall look and feel of the posters. Having seen them now with and without, I can confidently say that they tend to flow better without the borders.

Keeping the University logo in the top center of the page also has helped keep a unifying theme of sorts. In creating these posters I seemed to have come across an unlikely aspect: while painterly in composition, they are far from painted images. Granted I intended this to a point, I was unsure then just as to how it work out. So far I'm pleased with the results and intend to do similar stylistic choices on the latter two posters.

Constructing a lifelike flame for the candle proved to be more challenging than initially thought.
Initially using an image pulled from Google, the candle used was far too simple, and well, flat.
After looking through various photoshop tutorials, I came across one that showed how to construct lifelike flames using the clouds and difference clouds filters. Completing the tutorial, I then selected the desired flame using the quickmask tool, separating it into three layers on the final poster I was then able to change the lighting settings, also using the liquify filter to give even more of a flame like quality.

A Christmas Carol - Rough

For this poster the goal I set on was to make less Christmasy. Given the subject matter that could be seen as a bit of a stretch, but a challenge nontheless. In oder to do so I designed the poster as if it were an actual moment of Dickens' tale. Specifically the initial meeting Scrooge has with the Ghost of Christmas Present. So far I am quite pleased with the results, but after some more tweaking on the candle and font, I should 2 of 4 in terms of completion.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Deviating from the original sketch in terms of composition, I made as best an attempt as possible to keep as close to that sketch as possible. Allowing some creative liberties I feel that as a first poster this went quite well. Having actually watched the play (albeit in film form) helped too in the creation of the piece.

The fonts used were "Boister," an old english font that I downloaded and Georgia for the logo. For the logo I tried to do something similar to what I did in the previous posters, while not doing the same at all, if that's believable.
In designing the logo I tried to make as simple as possible as this would be the unifying theme of each poster. The font again is "Georgia" as I was unsure of what the real font for the school logo was. Initially I tried to incorporate a nautilus shell into the design, but I realized the further I went with that idea, the less simple it became.

So here we are nearing the end of the semester and it's crunch time. Can I pull this off? Three to four more posters in roughly a week. Yeah I think so.

More to come....

Digital Phase - July 20, 2010

As the mid-semester point has come, I've entered the digital and final design phase of this project. After my last meeting I since rethought my design for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Having now seen the actual film, the initial idea of figures being hung wouldn't necessarily work, as nether character is actually seen as being hung.

Instead I decided to work off of one of my last comps, the one involving the coin. Throughout the beginning of the play/film, the characters have an ongoing debate as to how many times they would flip 'heads' (98 I believe...). In any case, I have since started constructing elements and have come with thus so far...
The border is based off the designs I had for the previous batch of theater posters. With these I have decided that each would have a border with the school name, giving a rough unity between posters. The blood was an added touch using a recently downloaded set of brushes.

For two of the other posters "Summer and Smoke," and "Christmas Carol" respectively, I have come across an unlikely 'accident.'

Having been inspired by the work done for the faculty and student show posters I have been wanting to incorporate photographic work with digital for some time now. Having been clueless as to what to incorporate in the "Summer and Smoke" poster, this might be a good idea in the right direction. Plus as the semester seems to be moving faster by the day, well you know....










"A Christmas Carol" "Summer and Smoke"

In my last meeting the intial comp for "A Christmas Carol" had a favorable response so I might in fact do both...

More to come...

What follows is the photos incorporated in a rough format of what I'd like to accomplish...

Sketches and Rough Ideas

For some the design process is a laborious task. Over my time here I have found out that my productivity level is greater if I sketch and map out my ideas before taking them to a computer. Some my argue that this makes the overall design process drag on further, but to me this makes more sense than the false starts that tend to happen if you lack an initial idea when opening Photoshop or Illustrator.


During my first meeting w/ Joesph it was addressed that the Theater Dept. head (Jerry?) wanted to incorporate the main characters in some sense of fashion into each design. Mapping out these requests it became apparent that one of the best ways to accomplish this would be through silhouette figures.


Having found myself unfamiliar with the majority of these productions I deduced a certain degree of research would be necessary. In Shakespeare's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead," themes of existentialism and death come to mind, fitting given that the story takes place in the same timeline as "Hamlet." With a bloodbath figuring into the story I wanted to subtly incorporate this using a downward flow on the page. Seeing stills from the film version -- speficially on with the leads each having a noose tied around their neck allowed me the creatve liberty necessary to simulate a blood flow using shadows instead of actual blood. three themes came to mind. With coins and blood both figuring prominently along with existentialism I wanted to incorporate the flowing appearance but with shadow instead of blood.


Not feeling satisfied with the initial sketch I opted to draw out two more ideas. One following in the same line of ideas as the first, the other inspired by some of the logos for "Watchmen."


The first of two 'alternates' incorporates the shadows found in the previous sketch but instead of a skull, that flowing shadows lead into the ocean where we see a ship billowing in the wind, likely signifying the ship that both of the lead characters attempt to escape on.


The other idea draws upon the blood/smiley face logo from "Watchmen" Instead of a cheerful 70's logo however the idea consists of two coins, each with a likeness of one of the two leads. As it turns out I felt that this idea may be the more dynamic of the bunch. While this idea doesn't necessarily fit within Jerry's approach I feel that this design might be able to emphasize that this story is more tragic than most.


For "A Christmas Carol" I wanted to do something that wasn't as obvious, making one question just what the image really was. Whether I was successful or not, I do like the initial design as gives
a greater sense of what may be going on...


The idea I had for "Brigadoon" resembles some initial ideas I had about the progress. By simply having two figures stading in front of a huge full moon it would turn out to be almost too cliche. So I opted to include a postcard that could also sub as a postcard letting the audience in one the title while maintaining a sense of mystery to the average theater-goer. Someone has asked if I am planning on incorporating texture graphics in the final designs. The notion of texture let me think more out side the box in terms of overall composition as it would be great to photograph actual grass to incorporate on the greens. Also I would love to give the posters each a folded texture - creases and all. However with this semester flying by a blazing pace, putting textures in is my least bit worries.


More to come in the following days, including a first pass at Tennessee William's "Summer and Smoke" plus more sketches with the hope to get into the digital phase by the end of the week.

Tick Tock.....

Statement of Purpose -- Week of July 12

For this class I will be working with the UWF Theater Dept. in creating the posters for the upcoming 2010-11 season. Consisting of five individual plays (up from four last year), the goal of this assignment is to create dynamic and thought provoking posters using vector based images as opposed to watercolor illustration ( a Theater Dept. mainstay for 3-5 yrs).

The plays in question for this season are as follows:
-"Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" by Tom Stoppard -"A Night of Musical Theater Scenes"
- A Night of Various Musical Scenes
-"A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens
-"Summer and Smoke" by Tennessee Williams
-"Brigadoon" by Alan Jay Lemer and Frederick Loewe

This assignment is similar to that of one late in the Spring 2010 Advanced Graphics I class. Having saved those images I was able to revisit them after the six week break that followed the previous class. Having had some time away from them gave me a new perspective and quite possibly another angle as to how to approach this assignment. The initial three images, based off of the 2009-10 season started with a clear goal: uniformity. Keeping an overall theme running through each poster, it helped to convey a possible identity for the Dept. But as you can see below the initial conception and the results that followed seemed to be lacking at best.. One of the goals in creating these posters was to keep it simple, as many of the posters in Theater Dept. have come off as busy and hectic. Reviewing these posters however led me to the discovery that they may have been too simple. This is especially the case with "A Christmas Carol" and "The Learned Ladies." One of the guidelines for this new batch of designs however is to keep a sense of the characters involved in the story, something that was missing from the first three. Focusing on the figures (characters of each play) the goal is build a contemporary vector image. The challenge however is to NOT merely 'ape' or copy what has been done before. I have some rough sketches and mock-ups constructed as of this writing but have not made digital backups of them. In the next post I hope to include said images and whatever feedback I may have obtained from them.

...The original posters: