"Graphic Design: 'The OUTSIDERS' Poster for Highland Drama"

THE PROJECT: It is a tradition that Graphic Design classes design posters for the Drama productions each year. This year will be no different. We are on a relatively short schedule, students have one week to complete this project!!

Here are the SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS regarding the creation of "The Outsiders" Poster:

PLAY SUMMARY: The plot of the show reflects two conflicting social groups (gangs) and the damage that can come as a result of their struggle for power. The tone of the play is very aggressive, but hopeful. If you would like to read a more complete summary of the book, try this link.

PRIOR WORKS: THE OUTSIDERS has been a popular book, play and movie over the past fifty years. There are numerous posters and book covers available on the internet that will help you to decide on proper design elements. I would highly recommend using the internet as a resource for this project, but DO NOT DIRECTLY COPY A DESIGN! NOTE: Most of the MOVIE POSTERS for The Outsiders feature photographs of the members of the movie cast. This is NOT helpful in any way for this project. I highly recommend researching PLAY POSTERS or BOOK COVERS for inspiration, not movie posters.

THE POSTER: You now have lots of experience creating posters and logos, so we will now put that experience to good use to create a marketing poster for Drama:

  • The Poster MUST include the following elements that are listed in RED:
    • TITLE: S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders (PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING FROM THE PUBLISHING COMPANY: "Wherever the title of the play appears for purposes of advertising, publicizing or otherwise promoting the play and/or your productiono, the name of the author MUST BE at least half of the size of the TITLE of the play".)
    • OTHER TEXT:
      • Highland High School's Drama Department Presents:
      • Adapted to the stage by Christopher Sergel
      • Produced by special arrangement with The Dramatic Publishing Company of Woodstock, Illinois.
    • DATE: May 11th, 2018, 5:30 -7:30 p.m.
  • The Poster will be created on a PORTRAIT 8.5 x 11 inch canvas or LANDSCAPE 11 x 8.5 inch canvas at 300 dpi resolution in ILLUSTRATOR. Play posters have a very specific look and feel to them that is best expressed through the use of ILLUSTRATION TECHNIQUES, such as those that we use in ILLUSTRATOR. This is NOT A PHOTOSHOP PROJECT!
  • IMAGERY appropriate to the play. In the past for The Outsiders book covers and play posters, such images have included the following- a high school theme paper, combs, '50s hairstyles, switchblades (I have talked with Mr. Yaussi about these, they ARE appropriate for use in this project), fire, a burning church, matches/lighters, a tough gang of teenage boys, blood splatter. DO NOT use these images in your poster unless you are sure of how and why you are using them!
  • COLORS: Keep the color palette to a minimum, preferably only 3-4 colors. Colors that consistently show up in previous THE OUTSIDER works are BLACK, WHITE, RED, ORANGE and GOLD/YELLOW.
  • TEXT/FONTS: You have complete control over what your letters will look like on the page, USE THIS! Your font selection should reflect the OUTCAST nature of the boys in the play. Please use interesting and pertinent fonts that compliment the look of the poster. USE YOUR TEXT AS A DESIGN ELEMENT!
  • The cover can include a very small "lastname, 2018" in the lower right corner, giving you credit for your design!

CREATION and SUBMISSION OF THE POSTER: Be creative with the design of your Poster! Just because you are restricted to black, white, red and gray does not mean that you can't be extremely creative with the look of your piece. When you are done with your cover, save it as a JPEG and call it: lastname_THE_OUTSIDERS.jpg COPY IT TO THE "THE_OUTSIDERS" FOLDER ON THE Q: DRIVE BY THURSDAY,APRIL 26TH, so that the Drama class can select and print the winning poster(s) by the end of the day ASAP for their marketing purposes.

GRADING: This project will be graded on the following criteria:

  • POSTERS MUST be completed and printed on THURSDAY, APRIL 26TH by the end of class so that Mrs. Rich and her Drama students can determine a winning design and begin the process of printing the posters. If there is evidence of thought, creativity and strong effort with no missing elements or errors on this logo: 100/100 points.
  • Posters not printed and submitted by the end of class on THURSDAY,APRIL 26TH OR any other issues (missing or incorrect elements, poor execution, use of improper imagery, misspelled words, incorrect author font size, etc.): 0/100 points..

REWARDS FOR WINNING DESIGNS: Mrs. Rich indicates that the winning design will receive an undisclosed amount of candy. Mr. B. will deem the winning designer to be eligible to receive their choice of school appropriate beverage in either 4 pack, 6 pack or 12 pack size, depending on the requested beverage.