Sweeney Todd

This week we were asked to create 40 different thumbnail ideas for a theatre poster, and taking no longer than 10 minutes per visual.

I had created these visuals in pencil, fine-liner and coloured pencils and pens. I knew from the start I wanted to have a strong focus on the text but I had decided to experiment and create visuals that take inspiration from the play which I had chosen, Sweeney Todd. Some of the main elements I had taken inspiration from was the Iconic shaving knife, Mrs. Lovett's pies, the barber theme as well as including the full name of the play.

Following this we were then asked to pick 5 ideas and develop them even more. I had chosen to do this on illustrator to give me more freedom when developing my visuals.

In this first visual I had taken the quick thumbnail mock up I had created and put it into illustrator and started experimenting with different layouts, typography, boarders and backgrounds as well as colour.

The iconography I had used it strongly linked to the play being the iconic shaving knife and shaving brush which plays a big part in the play.

Here I wanted to create the poster to look like a newspaper. I struggled with this one with ideas so I had tried different sizes of text, and some with no text at all as it looked a bit too busy. The text I had used is the script from the play itself.

Then we were asked to take 3 of the 5 visuals we had created and develop them even further.

This was one of my favourite posters I had created. I wanted to create this poster in a more modern simplistic way, so I had the idea to stack the text. Then I had experimented with different fonts, sized, colours and backgrounds as well as the positioning of the location and date that needed to be on the poster.

I really like this poster as its simple and will catch your eye. With the play 'Sweeney Todd' being very gore filled I wanted to incorporate the colour red to give connotations of blood and danger.

For this design I wanted to create the poster in the style of a play script, considering it's a poster for a play. After doing some research on play scripts they mainly follow a black and white colour scheme so I had followed that in my work.

I had experimented with different layouts for the text, some versions I kept it simple with using as little text as possible but still allowing the title 'Sweeney Todd' to stand out. I Had also then added some more text to it including the copyright text and some general information on the play such as who did the music and the script writers to make it feel more authentic.

This design is another one of my favourites, I wanted to have some bold typography on the poster since I thought be straight to the point to an audience to convey what the poster is for.

I had used both serif and sans serif fonts to create two different versions. I had experimented with the serif font on different backgrounds, keeping the red theme for the blood and gore connotations, I had played around with layering the font in a smaller stroke over the top to create a layering effect. I had then stretched both the 'S' and 'Y' on Sweeney to place the date and location on the inside of the text.

With the sans serif font I had used the really bold style to make it feel very blocky and strong, I really wanted the text to be very in your face and stand out, I had done different outlines and strokes to help it stand out. Then I had dropped the 'Y' down to the bottom to create a more unique style and to help guide the viewers eye down.