Author: Thomas Hitchen

Please hover over the image to see the caption.

 

This week saw the first mock up of our show poster, the creation of our teaser material and some choreography work with the cast. Also, our company brand continues to develop as Refract’s status begins to grow around the city.

On a marketing note, this week has seen the first concept images being created for our poster and flyer design, as well as ‘polaroids’ to use as teaser material. The latter’s purpose is to engage with the audience on a more ambiguous level; to hint at who we are but also reserve some creative tools for our main campaign launch. Inside each ‘polaroid’ is a quote from a famous photographer or a question written by ourselves to invite the audience into considering there own views on the text. I decided to use text instead of imagery because I thought there was an interesting dynamic in the combination of the two, especially when our piece uses storytelling, text, to understand and deconstruct photographs.

Based on our skill set as a company, movement and dance seemed to lend itself well to our group dynamic. As a budding choreographer myself and choreographer for the company, I developed a piece of movement linking to the harrowing image of the falling people on September 9/11; probably known as a ‘famous’ image across the world. Who were these people? Did they know each other? Had they only just met? What were their last words? As we are still in the early stages of the devising process, I approached the choreography with this image as a stimulus; to engage with the idea of loss, of falling and of relationships. A cast member even likened this image to Peter Pan and his shadow; what a beautiful interpretation.

Works Cited

Figure 1. The Death Posture (2013) [Photograph] At: http://timeconsumerrr.tumblr.com/ [Accessed 6 March 2015].

 

 

“Branding in advertising is on-going, with new visual elements continually added and subtracted” (Phillips, McQuarrie and Griffin, 2014, 318).

As Marketing and Press Manager it is my role to ensure that a cohesive brand identity is established as well as connecting with our target audiences. The first few weeks of my role encompassed translating our manifesto, mission statement and project ideas into a visual brand; that is, creating a logo, a colour scheme and so on. In terms of the logo, difficulties presented themselves when trying to create an image which looked aesthetically pleasing yet successfully interpreted our company name. To aid my process, and to provide inspiration, I set up a Pinterest account and produced a ‘mood board’ based on images which considered words like, ‘refraction’, ‘identity’ and ‘light’. You can view under the Documentation > Marketing

Below you can see some of the original designs I created, along with the finished product.

 

 

The final image combines parts of initial explorations to formulate a strong, clear logo that can easily translate onto posters, flyers, social media accounts and company documentation.

The next step in continuing the establishment of our brand identity is to create and distribute posters and flyers, both across campus and throughout the city and to begin teasing out content of our show. I aim to have two campaigns; the first, a teaser campaign and the second being the main promotional campaign involving the local press and distribution of materials. As our show features the idea of viewing the ‘true image’ in photos and recognising personal experiences in global events, I have asked the company to draw, paint or sketch their own interpretations of global events. In doing so, I intend to use the images and distribute them with our logo and date of the show on the back, to one, hint at the content of the piece and two, tease and stimulate interest in the show and our company. The images used will be integrated into our main poster design; successfully creating visually consistent branding elements and externally facing materials.

Works Cited

Phillips, B., McQuarrie, E. F. and Griffin, W. G (2014) The Face of a Brand: How Art Directors Understand Visual Brand Identity. Journal of Advertising, 43 (4) 318-332.