Problem

Local live theatre productions in Seattle saw a dip in audience attendance and ticket sales during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Seattle Shakespeare company needed to promote their show “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and invite newer, younger audiences.

Background

The Seattle Shakespeare Company regularly advertises their seasonal productions through various sources (print, environmental, digital). Most of their advertising design is based on an initial show poster that is posted all around the city. It’s typical to run into these posters on the street and in public businesses. To enhance their reach and capture younger audiences, I created a campaign that should encounter a wide audience out in the world and online.

INSIGHT

Would-be theatre patrons are Typically 20–40 year olds, urban, single or double income with no kids. Being a part of the audience myself, I was able to reflect on what would make me interested in attending this show. Growing up with blockbuster fantasy stories in books, movies, and television from a young age, the thought of “escaping” into an incredibly expressive magical realm felt like the key.

Concepting

Beginning with research, read the story of A Midsummer Night's Dream and learned more about my audience for this poster. I collected images based off of brainstorming sessions to get some ideas for visual metaphors and style choices. With group feedback, I landed on a sketch highlighting the main catalyst of the story, creating a weird and magical environment that perfectly matched the mood of the play itself.

Mood, Style, Medium

The direction I went with the style was to play into bits and pieces of the weird and macabre world of medieval artworks such as the Illuminated Manuscripts, the painting of Hieronymus Bosch, and more modern artworks of Edward Gorey. All of which paired beautiful and magical, mystical settings with unusual, weird elements that tended to strike the viewer's attention. I decided that the poster would be completely hand drawn digitally in Procreate and Photoshop using textured brushes. The final design is effective because it is both striking and beautiful, featuring small easter eggs from the story for the viewer to find throughout.

Advertising

The final step in this project was devleoping a more expansive advertising campaign. I decided that the poster and bus ad would serve as initial touchpoints for potential theatre - goers and would drive them to the website. From there, customers would see a website banner ad with more information. After purchasing tickets customers will be able to download animated gifs to use when chatting with friends on their android or iphone. For all of these projects I highlighted select pieces of the original poster design, focusing in on each “easter egg” as a preview.