Here is a poster that I just finished designing for an upcoming double/triple bill event.
The event is a sort of Chatham County partnership of two or three events (actually many more!)..
(and therefor, be warned that this post is very much about the theme of Siler City, and Chatham County in general, and our 'creative economy', as much as it is about this poster! It also touches on the issue of contracting, which happens to have been a big theme for me this month).
The two main events are:
1) The Downtown Siler City 3rd Friday Artwalk, which has been a staple of downtown business's efforts to revitalize the downtown here, and
2) The Chatham Creative Economy Summit, which will feature a keynote address by our NC Secretary of Cultural Resources, Linda Carlisle. taking place up the road, in Silk Hope, NC While the 'Pre-Party' is sort of our 3rd Friday event in Siler, there will also be a Post Party in nearby Pittsboro, NC. The 3 pronged approach seems to be the love child of local Publicity Genius, Carol Hewitt.
I should share that my primary goal in the design and contracting of this poster was:
the advertisement of our 3rd Friday event.
Why was this?
Well, in general, we have had a very good response to these events, both locally, within Siler City, and regionally, from Surrounding towns like Sanford, Silk Hope, Liberty and Pittsboro. In Siler City especially, people have really 'come out of the woodwork', and I think its pretty safe to say that you will see the downtown a blaze with more people, and civic fervor than you will ever see on most of the other 28+ days of the month. In this way, the event has been really successful.
However, attendance of this event can flucuate wildly, often in response to the weather. And ironically, in February, we had PERFECT weather, and a very poor turn out. The only people I saw walking around were out of towners, wondering where the heck the party was at?
So needless to say, when we learned that the organizers of the larger Chatham County Creative Economy Summit was showcasing our 3rd Friday event, it was with some alarm, and urgency that this downtown community called ourselves to ACTION!
ANTE UP
So one evening, the downtown merchants called a meeting, and we gathered at the local Courtyard Cafe coffee shop (ground zero of grassroots SC revitalization efforts) and called on all of our own best personal resources to help make sure this was a memorable event, worthy of its time! I personally felt very honored to be invited. And it was encouraging and exciting to see that everyone in attendance understood the gravity of the situation, and was prepared to chip in in response!
For instance
-One local artist, who paints beautiful designs volunteered to do face painting on children!
-The owner of the local used Book Store decided to showcase Holistic Medicine for Pets!
-I offered to instal Tyrius, the giant tire worm. in a shady nook by a bank. (see my reptire blog)
-The Persons offered up the masks they have been making with a local group of disabled artists, for a Mardi Gras Party!
-And to address the dire need for downtown dining options ( that we have come to recognize now that we are without Mina Beana's RIP, and Sidewalk is no longer participating, our Local Farmer's Market has offered to prepare a 'Farm to Fork' all locally grown dinner! Which our local outlandsih Artist Roger Person has offered to host in the state of the art Person to Person gallery he built!
(this is just a small sampling of the different things that our hodge podge of local businesses, reached into their 'pockets', and dropped into this stone soup).
Well, when we decided that we needed a poster, they all looked around and asked, do we have any graphic designers in town?.... this was to be a little bit of a moment of truth for yours truly..... I probably sort of scowled, while a few eyed me suspiciously. I happen to have got way to many contracts (sculptural and graphic) already to take on volunteer work right now. However, after alot of 'hemming and hawing', finally, the damn broke, and I cried "Alright, Alright!" and had to ante up!
CONTRACT
BUT, I did insist that I would not do A THING without a contract. And what a favor I did us all, I believe. I have to thank both myself for this forsight, and also Joan Underwood, good owner of the Courtyard Cafe, for being so cooperative and understanding in agreeing to work with me on this. (It so happens that Joan used to run a landscaping and surveying business with her husband Charles (who agreed to do the printing), so she was well aware of the necessity of contracts in the 'service industry', and I really did appreciate her empathy and great attitude in this regard. She has been a real 'peach' to work with. I wish everyone understood the importance of this process as well as she, and I find that it is becoming part of my job to educate people about this process, and how it can be worthwhile, and even as enjoyable as it has been undertaking this process with Joan. It actually lets both parties breath alot easier, I think I am going to need to follow up with another post just about contracting).
So, Joan and I contracted to design a poster, with the goal to help HERALD this event, mainly to Siler City.
Now that we had established that we were going to undertake this process together, in an intentional, and somewhat methodical manner, now came THE REALLY FUN PART!!!
What ingredients did we want to put into the poster?
Well, Firstly, one theme, that I sensed emerging during the course of our meeting that night, (and had taken it upon myself to verbally share and acknowledge) was the theme of SPRING. Kim, sitting next to me, hadconfirmed that our date of March 18th was actually quite auspiscous (the New Moon?), and the whole tone of the meeting just seemed to have the flavor of us bugs, hiding under the leaf mat and melting snow, and saying, "Well are we going to stay under here all year?!! Its time to get out of here, into the light of day!!!!"
So SPRING, which is very much in the air around here at this moment, was to be a central theme.
For this Reason, I put the date loud and clear up top, in a centered (to me almost ceremonial format). For this same reason, I also wanted to choose a color palette that reflected the freshness of spring, a joy to 'behold'.
Secondly, someone, I believe it was fiber Artist Sue Szary, owner of Against His Will Gallery, pointed out, wouldn't it be wonderful to incorporate the design of the striking and inspiring new banners that the Siler City Merchants Association has hung around town. The read Discover Downtown Siler City, in white lettering on a dark green background, with a central medallion of a 'hand painted' golden yellow sun at the center, very handsome.
To see an image of these bold and proud flags on the SCMA website, click here.
I thought this was a great idea. And then, a few days later, during a meeting with the planners of the Creative Ecomony Summit (which I had raced back to SC to squeez in and attend), I had another idea of a Riff on that theme...
The local downtown merchants have come up with this great system of posting a yellow flag outside their business, to signify that they are open for business, and participating. I don't know if this is a common technique that they are appropriated from elsewhere, but around here, it has become somewhat of a signature of the Downtown Siler City 3rd Friday events. So I thought, well why don't we make the flames of this sun (from the banners) into the yellow flags of Downtown business! I personally am quite proud of the poetry of this imagery. This is why you hire a pro!!!
And then, to top it all off, and to tie it is with the theme of the larger Creative Economy Summit, I added the 'stem' of a light bulb to the sun, making it a light, and added the text
!LIGHTS ON! Downtown Siler City.
This 'medallion' was to be the central (hopefully captivating) image of the poster.
The bottom third I decided to keep for information. There was some discussion of making more room for the information, (as there was alot to share). However, I personally really felt it was important to let this image sort of speak, for itself in a way. As we all know, we are all too bombared with information, and I believe that, as we are visual creatures first and for most; if we don't let a piece of marketing do its job of introducing itself, earning the viewers trust, and interest, drawing them in, then all of the the vital information is going to be ignored, and thus lost, rendering the material more or less a useless waste of time and money. That is just my current perspective).
So, for this poster, I kept the central message of Lights on Downtown Siler City, clear bold and to the point.
For the bottom 3rd of the poster, in presenting the information in clear way, I attempted to also keep the feeling of both SPRING and of 'ART'. I had alot of fun cultivating this look too! (a long process).
I thought of daffodils, of soft mossy green shoulders, and of the slime in the pond I stole some tadpoles from about this time, last year!
At first, I had all of the info panels white, but this was just killing me to look at, so I changed at least the two side panels to a light buttery mossy green, and this softened the needlessly harsh effect of the white a little.
I left the central panel white, for two reasons.
For one, my photoshops chops are not yet up to par, and I wasn't able to retain she shadows of the red door graphic while trying to clip the white out. On a longer timeline, I would have found a way.
Two: But I was on a tight deadline, and I really liked the way that the door reads in the panel. I am especially pleased by the its position in the panel, and the way it worked out with the text, as to me if feels very 3d, and inviting, set further back towards the horizon. (I had placed it closer to the bottom originally).
This Red Door graphic, opening onto a sampling of the cultural riches of Chatham county, by the way, was adapted and graciously shared with me by its creator Lesley Landis, of Lesley Landis Designs, who I got to meet (over email) and work with just a little bit in the course of this project, and for whose assistance in sharing this her band of other supporting logos, I am grateful).
As for the panels, I also felt that it was good that they alternated and varied in tone and hue, to create some more dynamic visual interest in that section of the poster. I felt that also didn't hurt that the summit jumped out (as it is in several ways the centerpiece of the weekend), and also of course that the small amount of white, tied in, and perhaps grounded the white lettering of the text up above.
What a balancing act!
To me, most of graphic design is just that. A great big balancing act, of different elements, different players, and of all of their/(our!) different needs.
I do hope that I have met those many needs in this poster.
