A Midsummer Night's Dream Production in Scranton

A man in Scranton who works or the high school there wanted to have a poster for the 30's hobo-themed A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM they're doing there. Sounds awesome, and I wish I could go.

He found me on this blog because I did a hobo drawing a long time ago and stuck it on this blog for kicks. He quickly found out that I do a lot charity work and love Shakespeare.

The finished product looks like this. I'm happy with the way it turned out. It's supposedly going on a billboard and some other spots. I enjoyed doing it. It doesn't look great on my screen right now, and I suppose it's because I worked in CMYK and didn't do a proper turn to RGB. YMMV.

I hope you like this poster, too.

Experiments in QR Codes

These are experiments in QR Codes. At the moment they bring you to a dummy page that I'd like to make a reality eventually.
I think they can be an incredible new way to engage audiences. I see nothing but potential in this technology.
Imagine a world in which you can engage the companies you like on your own terms. A lot of people are afraid of privacy, but I think that this gets around that issue nicely. You actually invite more content by scanning the code. Thus, you only get the advertisement that you really want.

But speaking of privacy, wouldn't it be great to only be advertised things you might really want? I feel like the filter on my brain doesn't need to be as active if advertisers already know to not bother with pitching stuff to me I won't ever want or need. The question "what can they do with all that information they have about us?" always comes up when talking about the future of media, but I have to counter it with, "what would they want to do with it?" The only thing that makes sense is to sell us stuff. . . which is exactly what businesses have always been doing. Now they can more accurately target us. Targeting is a good thing. It keeps you from having to deal with Viagra and Lipitor commercials when you're 15 and from dealing with World of Warcraft ads when you're 72.

Anyway, aren't QR codes cool?

Some Banners I Made for ASC

I made these banners because we had to wait on photography for our coming season. There needed to be something visually compelling there, so I put these on the webpages corresponding to these titles as placeholders until we get said photos. The boss likes photos of actors, so that's what he'll get when the photographer gets us everything. I think these are some pretty snazzy stop-gaps. They normally appear at 500px.

Some Banners I did for ASC

Above is an artificial bokeh effect that I made and liked because it looks magical. It appears on a gray bg, so that it looks like it has rounded corners. It would normally be sharper and readable, appearing at 500px wide.

Most of the Blackfriars Playhouse is wood, so I thought it would be nice to have a banner that reflected different shades of wood.

This was an experiment in kinetic typography. I tried doing it in flash, but no one liked the effect but me. It started like this, and I like the way it looks. I think it makes Ben Jonson look edgy and fun. We used that quote in our marketing for the show.

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I like doing the odd banner here and there. It keeps my skills sharp and lets our graphic designers concentrate on some heftier things. It's good to keep one's production artist skills fresh.

A Second Stab at Infographics

We wanted a military metaphor for marketing, but I didn't want it to be reminiscent of a real war from any era. So I drew tanks from different countries and colored them in ridiculous shades. Same with the jets.

The idea is that Marketing is to Sales what Air Support is to Ground Forces. It's a commonly used way to describe the relationship between the two. So, I used it for our org chart. Then the Goals, Strategies, and Tactics page echoes the military thing, but it's color-coded and uses short launch ideas rather than explain everything. These were used as visual aids in a staff meeting at the American Shakespeare Center.

A Stab at Infographics

I would have polished this a bit more, but we went a different direction before I finished the comps. I love infographics. This one attempts to illustrate the relationship between Marketing and Sales with a metaphor that might be a little tired. The second page is an internal goals/strategies/tactics chart to get our department on one page and creatively portray our vision to the rest of the company.

In the end, this is a rough draft. Don't be too critical, please. I'm proud of my Adobe Illustrator skills on that chicken and egg, though.

American Shakespeare Center's Survive and Thrive Campaign

I made this logo/badge/button for the American Shakespeare Center's Survive and Thrive Campaign.
It would be nice if you joined the American Shakespeare Center's Facebook Cause.

MACBETH

That's right, Jack Morgan is an actor now. I did the poster, too. Come see the play. You might like it.