For centre ballet
The Little Mermaid
Poster, Tickets & Marketing
A full scale illustration project with deliverables that included two event posters, tickets, marketing cards, and social media posts.
The Project
The Idea
Centre Ballet was looking for a poster design for their upcoming production of The Little Mermaid. I was tasked with the idea to create a poster that incorporated the main characters with a feeling of a ballet. The poster also needed to accomodate the production details as well.
Based on the fact that it was a ballet and not the disney cartoon, I wanted to steer away from anything too related to the cartoon, but still make it recognizable for young audiences.
Much of the moodboard focused on colors that might pertain to the sea and came close to the color schemes of the cartoon. So I chose to work on a more formal lettering style to distinguish it more as a ballet.
2022 | 2023
The Details
Size | Color | Tools
Centre Ballet requested the poster be in 12×18 format for use in the windows of businesses and have a 24×36 for larger uses and to have available for sale at the production. Later when we added marketing cards, those were in 5×7 portrait format and the tickets were 2×7. The playbill was in an electronic format and included a spot illustration of each character.
As I mentioned, the first color scheme was more typical of ocean colors. Bright with teals and oranges.
As I researched ballet poses to incorporate as the main characters, I decided to keep the idea of a mermaid’s tail rather than legs in order to draw in the younger audiences to the poster. However I did happen upon a ballet pose that seemed perfect for Ursula and I had the idea to create two posters, one featuring the heroine and the other the villain. But I didn’t want to use the vibrant colors of the sea for the villain poster, so I began searching for colors that might work and put together a scheme that was mostly purple with some pinks for Ursula.
coppelia poster design
The Process
Process
Step one
Step 1: Ideation | Thumbnails
These are some of the thumbnails I played around with, which led to a couple of larger sketches that I would work from.
Process
Step two
Step 2: Sketches
Once I have a sketch I like (this may take a few more of big changes to get me where I want to be), I begin tweaking that sketch by overlaying tracing paper or using a light table and resketching the piece. I keep tweaking and at times changing things up by making the lettering thicker or taller, or slanting it. I keep working sketches until I have something I love. Usually I get through about 10 sketches, then I create the final sketch.
In this case, I showed Centre Ballet 2 sketches and after they chose a sketch I began to work on the digital illustration. I created two lettering styles: a ribbon style and a more playful block style.
Process
Step three
Step 3: Digitize
After scanning in the final sketches I got to work in Adobe Illustrator, using the pen tool to create the letter shapes and illustration pieces.
Several times, I’ll print out what I have and check for necessary changes. I use this process until I like how the letter shapes and illustration look.
Once I have the base down, I begin working through the detail using a number of tools in Illustrator depending on the need. Here I’ll print again and make necessary changes. After I have the details done, I finalize the colors.
Here, I was working with 2 colorways but as I created the Ursula poster I realized that it would be more cohesive to have 1 colorway and 1 lettering for the title. The only difference being the villain would be dark with different illustrations and the heroine would be light.
With the choice made, it’s off to the final steps in Photoshop where I add highlights, shadows, and texture.
Process
Step Four
Step 4: Finalize
Most of my letting art in this project makes it’s way to Photoshop. In photoshop I copy of layers and begin adding fine detail to the lettering and illustration. Usually this means light, shadow, textures, line work, and any effects like noise layers, drop shadows or bevels that I didn’t do in Illustrator. From here I take it to a couple different screens and print it off again. If I like how things look I move to creating mockups and the actual use items like the calendar.
