For this assignment I am asked to produce a poster, a flyer, a newspaper advert and a programme cover for a youth theatre club performing a production od Mike Leigh’s ‘Abigail’s Party’. It is a tale of suburban taste set in the 1970’s. The play will be touring local theatres for a month. The client is particularly keen for the designs to have a 70’s feel. I started off with familiarizing myself with the plot of the play. As the 1970’s feel is important to the client, I researched how every-day life looked back then.
I recently watched a program called ‘Back in time for dinner’ on BBC, it is a historical cooking show,it gave me an insight into the way of life in the 1970’s. ‘Abigail’s Party’ was mentioned in it.
I wanted my designs for this assignment to present the gathering, people meeting, interacting, to keep with the play’s plot. I planned on making the 1970’s theme present in all of my designs. The research I made gave me a few visual ideas. I wanted for at least some of the work to be handmade, for example the background and then the text can be added on the computer. I made a collage in my previous work and thought it should be suitable for this assignment. I find making collages to be a great way of adding colours and patterns to a design and those seem crucial in the 1970’s style. The idea I had was a view of guests standing at the party. I decided to use a collage to make shoes, with floor and wallpaper in the background.
The first idea I had was a view of people standing together with just shoes visible from above, with text in the centre. It worked fine in the sketchbook, but a collage of a shoe and foot from this angle did not really work. The second idea was a profile of a shoe and foot. This way I could show the shoe in more detail, for example a platform of a shoe would not be visible in a shot from above. In order for my designs to be accurate I researched 1970’s footware styles. Platforms were very popular and I decided to use them in my designs.
I made a collage of a woman’s and man’s shoe out of paper magazine cutouts. The sandal on a platform worked well, I thought it looked realistic and with the 1970’s feel. The man’s shoe took me longer to make, but in the end I was happy with a large toe box shoe on a short and wide heel. Then I started looking for patterns that would look like a wallpaper from that time. I also tried different ways of placing the collage elements I made, one idea is to have the woman’s and man’s shoes facing each other, the other idea is for Beverly’s legs to be placed together on the side of the poster, as if she was standing and waiting in anticipation for the guests to arrive. I also like her sitting with her legs crossed, that gives a more relaxed feel than the other versions. Wooden floor, white skirting board and a pattern wallpaper complete the background.
Next was to find a suitable font for the text. I planned on using a retro-looking font for the play’s title and keeping the rest simple and easily read. I tried a few fonts and used the Alba font for the title.
The smaller text on the poster is written in Myriad Pro Regular font. I included all the essential information on it. The front page of the flyer shares the platform sandal collage and the title of the play, all the remaining information is on the back of the flyer with the male guest’s shoe. Fonts used are Alba and Myriad Pro. Similar collage that is used for the poster is also used for the newspaper advert. The following are my designs:
Poster
Flyer-front
Flyer-back
Newspaper advert
Programme cover
I think I created designs that would fulfill the client’s brief. The 70’s brief that was so important to be included in those designs is present by the use of colours, patterns and 70’s style footwear. The handmade look might add to the 1970’s vibe. Overall I am happy with my work. I think the collage elements work well representing party guests, that also gave me a chance to create something away from the computer screen. Creating a poster, flyer, advert and the programme cover allowed me use all the collage variations I have created, making them slightly different, but they all share a similar theme.
