12th Night: Concept Narrative

Animal House meets Shakespeare—the concept behind this adaptation of Twelfth Night or What You Will was simple. It opened up a lot of opportunities for fun execution, a welcome change from the stereotypical formal image of other theater posters for Shakespeare’s plays.

In the initial stages of the concept process we did a lot of sketches, as well as a brief search for other poster/playbill combinations. Most of the existing posters for Twelfth Night were done in the traditional style—script style fonts with split or ambiguously gendered faces. Nearly every poster we found had some sort of human component. While several of our sketches had these elements, we wanted to take a more subtle approach. The goal was to imply the overarching gender identity and deception motifs in the play. But how to keep it accurate and still fun?

In the end we chose to use simple illustrations and typography that would capture the playfulness of the college scene. The beer cup illustrations that appear on both the poster and the playbill are easily identifiable as a part of the college party scene. Originally these had been part of a larger scale beer pong table with the cups arranged to create competing gender symbols. By using the beer cups we were able to evoke the Animal House image.

These more detailed images worked well on the poster, but we felt these drew too much attention away from the other content on the playbill cover. In order to adapt to the different scales and formats, we eliminated the complex gender symbols and substituted just two cups. The simple color change helped to retain the idea of gender. What you see before you is the final integration of these elements.­

12th Night Posters_Rough

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Shakespeare Sketches

Twelfth Night

I did a bit of research as to what the title refers to. Other than that, just watching the show today…very good. =)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Updates

spin info

SPIN Brand

SPIN Brand Promise:
To provide unique, stylish stemware, cookware and dinnerware handcrafted by local artists that can be easily integrated into any art lover’s kitchen.

Brand Values:
Supporting Local Vendors, Uniqueness, Quality, Craft, Sophistication, Class, Supporting the Arts, Versatility

Brand Essence (in adjective form):
Bright, fun, sophisticated, unique, quirky (?), stylish/chic, fun, artistic, intriguing, natural/nature-inspired, charming, modern

See brand information in tandem with my Visual Brief.

Competitive Audit/Additional Products

Experimenting with Packaging

As I mentioned in my last narrative, I sometimes have trouble when it comes to narrowing things down–it’s frustrating. This time wasn’t so bad. I had it narrowed down to dishes/stemware or cookbooks in the first hour. Once I’d decided on dishes, the concept just kind of came to me. I knew it would have to be trendy and chic, something unique and sophisticated for local urbanites. Finding that niche was key. Once I decided that I wanted to do a gallery, it was really a matter of finding the artists, understanding their processes and somehow working that into my identity system. That’s essentially how the concept for Spin was formed. I’ve always found glassblowing fascinating, and I’d had some experience in pottery. Everything involves such skill and labor to make these beautiful, functional items–artists have to juggle so much, it made my head spin. All of the processes involved spinning of some sort, and I thought since the gallery would be featuring multiple collections, each with a different spin, the name was perfect. I tried, but I couldn’t come up with anything else. It just fit! Spin would be a chic, upscale gallery where art lovers could purchase entire collections, individual pieces or even get in contact with artists to commission custom sets. I imagined it having a similar clientele as Stix.

When it was time to create the actual logo, I wanted to create something iconic to distinguish the brand from the mass of text-heavy logos. The final isn’t as pictoral as I’d originally hoped for, but it does incorporate imagery from some of the strictly-image logos I’d developed in the early stages. These will actually be incorporated into packaging elements for the next project, and I think the logo itself will be complemented very well. I know from the get-go that I wanted to use black and white elements to really let the colored glass shine. Oroginally I wanted to use popular brights used in glassblowing to accent elements of the system, but I do think your suggestion was wise. My final colors are a happy medium between my originals and the colors from the map project. The most difficult part of this was probably putting the logos into use. My storefront mock-up isn’t quite what I wanted, but the letterhead and the envelope turned out nicely. The artists’ signs are pretty cool, too. I struggled a lot with these–and the business cards–because they very closely resembled my own stationary system. I think they still do, but here is enough difference to distinguish each. If I go back and re-do anything, it will be my business cards. I love the small size for my personal use–I totally latched on to the format–but I don’t think it’s necessarily what’s best for the brand. I think a slightly larger one with a different format or different corners would be better. The concept of a round business card is extremely intriguing to me, and I loved it. At the time, however, I don’t think I could picture how to properly use it. I’ll be a little braver, perhaps, in using it in my portfolio. At least this way there’s some time to practice cutting out circles.

Overall I’m very pleased with the logo–ecstatic, really–and I’m pleased with the letterhead and the envelope. I’m still drawn to the horizontal format for the envelope, but the vertical fits best with the rest of the stationary. I’m way to attached to the vertical letterhead to let it go. I love that the recipient would have to turn the document and interact with it to read the address. Just a few final notes: If I were producing this for an actual client, I would absolutely suggest using the ink to create a texture. There’s some process which allows the ink to lay really thick on the paper, sometimes with a soft sheen, and I think this would create a more pleasant tactile, artistic feel. I think it could be very pretty on an off-white, subtly grainy paper, too. Something thicker than paper but thinner than cardstock. White works well, however. Through this project I’ve learned that I can trust my gut on some things, and I’ve learned that I really enjoy identity systems. As I move forward, I think I’ll continue to learn how NOT to duct tape myself inside a design box. Greater variation will strengthen my design, as well as my portfolio, and I think that’s terribly important. A Photoshop refresher couldn’t hurt, either.

Here’s my final signage:

(For the sandwich board)

 

 

 

 

 

 

(For the artists’ collections)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Mock-up of the store)

 

 

 

 

(Final Logo)