Howdy! I’m Kenny. I’m White Mouse’s very own graphic designer- very cool, I know. As a member of the marketing team, I’ve had the pleasure to work on promoting every major show we’ve had this semester, so I figured I’d make this second blog a little more personal by walking you through my ideas and concepts for the shows I got to design for. Here goes!
Whose Show is it Anyways?
Whose show was a complete blast to work on. I mean, not gonna lie, I was wicked nervous as I was working on it (since it was my “big debut” at White Mouse), but I got to really push myself with what I wanted for both posters and logo designs. The theme was a 1950’s style live-audience type show, so I illustrated two separate backgrounds- a classy, theater-style dressing room, and a large room filled with seats for a live audience- to really click with the theme and highlight White Mouse’s grand return to live performances. Gosh, and that logo? Dude! I don’t think making the logo could’ve gone better- I loved cross-referencing between the different text aesthetics of 50’s TV, theatre, and advertisements to figure out the exact logo I was going for. Whose Show was easily some of the best work I’ve done all semester.
The Playwriting Fellowship- Chlorine
Now, this show was a little more interesting to work on, because unlike with Whose Show, I was actually the marketing director and graphic designer for The Playwriting Fellowship in general and for the live reading of Abby Gordon’s Chlorine, the winner of the fellowship. Before the play was selected, the theme I went with was very simple- the color orange and the use of typewriters. The one involved illustration I made during this time was actually one of my more, uh, forgettable works- It was two disembodied blue hands typing out a reminder for the Fellowship on an orange typewriter, which looked… fine, in my opinion. When the play was revealed to be Chlorine, though, I was able to sit down with Ms. Gordon and ask her for her thoughts on what she wanted the promotion of her play to look like, which was by far the best part of working on this show. Being able to work directly with the playwright was what I originally wanted to do on the marketing board, so naturally I was stoked! The resulting images I made for Chlorine were- I felt- hit or miss, seeing as I was very busy with midterms, but overall, I enjoyed working on the show this semester. I can’t wait to knock my art outta the park next semester for the full show!
365 Women a Year Festival
Oh, 365, my beloathed. How you irritated me so. Seriously, It took me three tries to get my saturated flowers and calendar theme right for this thing, ugh. But, once I hit that final color palette- the one with all those lovely coral colors, accented by lime green with lime blossoms in the background (you know, the one right above this paragraph?)- it was excellent. Could not be happier with my choices. I also enjoyed designing the logo for this one as well- I really loved working with the calendar and post-it notes idea (it really gave me fun, open-plan office vibes). I had such a blast editing the text on the logo into both matching the logo color-wise and in making the arc shape for it to round out the logo more, as well. I feel like the best thing I was able to make for 365, though, was the shows’ program- it was a 15-page monster of graphic design, listing out summaries of every play and the bios/headshots of every actor and producer (page 1 shown above). It was a lot of work, but honestly, it was the cleanest piece of design work I’ve made all semester, so seeing the improvement was great encouragement for me.
All in all, I had an incredible time designing for White Mouse this semester. I loved having the opportunity to work on so many incredible projects all while pushing my own skills in art and design to be better each week. I’m looking forward to next year!
Thanks for reading my ramblings, by the way. You’re a trooper.
-Kenny Kleinknecht