"Graphic Design: 'Totally Red' Logo and 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 less than two weeks to complete this project! This year, we are also being asked to come up with a play logo, as well!

Here are the SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS regarding the creation of the "TOTALLY RED" Logo and Poster:

PART ONE- The Logo: While we will do much more with logos later in the semester and especially in the Spring, we still have the technology to create a good logo, if we use all of our resources.

  • Mrs. Rich would like to create a "logo" for the play TOTALLY RED that can be used in flyers, painted backdrops, posters, etc. To that end:
    • We will be creating a practice logo as a Bellringer this week, refer to this as needed!
    • Create this logo on a 11" x 8.5" canvas (landscape) at 300 dpi resolution. ALSO- Set the BACKGROUND CONTENTS of your canvas to TRANSPARENT!
    • Use only the colors RED, WHITE, GREY and BLACK.
    • We will be creating the logo using only LETTERS and possibly a simple CLIPART overlay. Nothing too complex, but still an image that is recognizable as a play about Little Red Riding Hood, as much as possible.
    • Use all of your canvas and create a logo using only letters. You may use any font that you wish, but remember, this play is for very young children, so nothing blood-dripping and horrorified!
    • Use letter placement and the colors that you are given to your best advantage to create your text.
    • Add simple clipart or figures to the letterforms to illustrate that the play pertains to Little Red Riding Hood. KEEP THIS DRASTICALLY SIMPLE. DO NOT USE ANY OF THE "LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD" CLIP ART FOUND ONLINE, IT IS ALL WAY TOO COMPLEX AND BABY-LIKE.
    • Check with Mr. B. when you are finished for final critiques and possible changes!
    • SAVE your file when it is completely finished as a .GIF file WITH TRANSPARENCY!

PART TWO- The Poster: You now have lots of experience creating posters, so we will now put that experience to good use to create a marketing poster for Drama:

  • The Poster MUST include the following elements:
    • TITLE: The title "TOTALLY RED" should be prominently placed on the poster and should be typographically designed to look like a play title. This will likely come from the winning LOGO design in part one!
    • INFORMATION ABOUT THE PRODUCTION:
      • "WORDS, MUSIC AND DRAMATIZATION BY: DINAH TOUPS"
      • "LYRICS AND MUSIC BY: BARBARA WALKER"
      • "PRODUCED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT WITH THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY of WOODSTOCK, ILLINOIS."
    • GRAPHICS: This play is an adaptation of the "Little Red Riding Hood" story for children. Your graphics should include KID FRIENDLY graphics of Little Red Riding Hood, the Wolf, the Color Red, a Forest or any combination therein. DO NOT FEEL THAT YOU HAVE TO INCLUDE ALL OF THESE ELEMENTS AT ONCE!
  • 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.
  • Keep the color palette to a minimum, preferably only 3-4 colors: Black, White, Red and Gray.
  • The Poster should include eye-catching graphics that fit the theme of a "LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD".
  • The poster should use interesting and appealing fonts that compliment the look of the poster. USE YOUR TEXT AS A DESIGN ELEMENT!
  • The Poster should use all of the design principles that we have been studying and practicing all year and should look clean and professional when completed! Think: UNITY- What do I want to UNIFY in this poster? EMPHASIS- What do I want to EMPHASIZE in this poster?
  • The cover should NOT include anything inappropriate to the subject matter. Nothing creepy or scary, no pictures of your girlfriend dressed in red, no guns, no crack pipes, no trippy designs. Anything turned in that is inappropriate in any way will be given a ZERO immediately and will likely be referred to Mr. Yaussi for further action.
  • The cover can include a very small "lastname, 2016" in the lower right corner, giving you credit for your design!

SOME VIDEO TUTORIALs THAT MIGHT BE USEFUL ON THIS PROJECT:

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_TOTALLY_RED.jpg COPY IT TO THE "TOTALLY RED" FOLDER ON THE Q: DRIVE BY FRIDAY, September 23rd, 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:

  • Logos MUST be completed and printed on WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21ST by the end of class! Mr. O'Brien and his art students want to be working on painting flats with this logo on Thursday! If there is evidence of thought, creativity and strong effort with no missing elements or errors on this logo: 50/50 points.
  • Logos not printed and submitted by the end of class on the 21st of September OR any other issues (logo completed, but missing or incorrect elements, poor execution, use of improper colors, misspelled words, etc.): 0/50 points.
  • Poster MUST be submitted by 4:00 p.m. on the 23rd of SEPTEMBER. If there is evidence of thought, creativity and strong effort with no missing elements or errors: 100/100 points.
  • Posters not printed and submitted by 4:00 p.m. on the 23rd of September OR any other issues (poster completed, but missing or incorrect elements, poor execution, use of improper colors, misspelled words, etc.): 0/100 points.

REWARDS FOR WINNING DESIGNS: Mrs. Rich indicates that the winning design will receive two free tickets to a drama production!