Version 1: Impact
When I started co-hosting Space Jam at HUGE Theater in 2015, I knew up front that it was my job to create a poster for every single special guest, whenever it was my turn to lead the jam. Initially, I was under the assumption that Space Jam had a specific style of branding, so I just copied what the 4 hosts before me were doing.
The formula was simple: Black background, white font (Impact), and important information highlighted in red. We’d find pictures of the guests from their Facebook accounts, and do a rough background mask to make room for the text.
When I realized there was no specific formula—that each host was allowed to put their own flair on the posters—I started to get creative.
Version 2: Magazine Covers
When searching for a picture of one special guest, I found a headshot where he looked kind of like a magazine model. I did some Google Image Searching for magazine covers like GQ, and went to town.
Each one contained a number of inside jokes and/or references to the performer’s shows. During this period, I had a lucky streak of finding guests with great headshots. In most cases, I’d have to cut out the background and find colors that matched their clothing. Sometimes I’d ask the guest what was their favorite color, and base the design around that. It was a lot of work, but each of these made HUGE (pun intended) impressions online, and the guests seemed to appreciate the effort.
But the thing is: being a Space Jam host is a volunteer position. As time went on, I started finding myself in more shows outside of Space Jam, and my schedule started making it harder to make such elaborate posters almost every week for no pay. I needed a simpler template.
Version 3: The Square
Since my most time-consuming efforts were devoted to turning inside jokes into magazine headlines, the best way to increase my turnaround speed was to keep it simple: Name, date, and picture. That’s it.
I kept the show title format, added an information bar at the bottom—which contains the same information on every picture—and left a rectangular space in the middle for an image.
It looks like a unified template. It felt right. But I was still in my infancy as a designer. I wanted to make something that really popped. Something that looked like what the professionals were doing at the time. Something that had a little more…OOMPH!
Version 4: The Spotify Look
I fell in love with what I called “the Spotify Look,” which is essentially a gradient map over the image. You can tell that my first attempt wasn’t very well executed, but when I learned the trick, I couldn’t be stopped!
The main reason this look didn’t last long is because color has never been my strong suit. I can perceive color just fine, but my brain has never managed to create content with compelling colors. So…back to the drawing board!
Version 5: The Square Magazine
I reverted back to The Square, but spiced it up a bit to also feel like the Magazine Cover. It’s clear how much better I was becoming at scaling and positioning images in the frame. The titles and background colors look a lot cleaner, and I had essentially mastered the craft of cutting out backgrounds.
And yet, not every improvisor has a great headshot to work with. It’s not their fault—heck, I don’t have one either! I spent so much time cutting out backgrounds, and my schedule continued to fill up. I found myself struggling to get the artwork posted before Thursday, because I just couldn’t find enough time to sit down and edit so much.
Version 6: The Blurred Duplicate
After years of trying to figure out how to simplify the process, I finally discovered what I call The Blurred Duplicate. Influenced by the auto-generated artwork music videos on YouTube, I simply place the guest’s picture in the middle, mask it with a square, duplicate it as the background, blur the background, change the guest name, change the show date, and adjust colors accordingly.
The process is so quick and easy, I can churn out one of these in minutes! I can still experiment with colors, but I no longer have to spend my hours cutting out backgrounds or writing inside joke headlines.
Plain, simple, clean, efficient. That’s what I wanted; that’s what I got.
Of course, I enjoy all of these designs for different reasons, so that’s why I’m sharing them here! If you’re looking for something similar for your production, let’s start a project together! Which one of these is your favorite? Send me a message, and we’ll bring it all together.