November 7, 2012

Designing the Don

Last year we wrote a post called 'Designing for Godot' that followed the creation of a poster for Blackbird Theatre's Waiting for Godot from final concept through to finished artwork. This year, in anticipation of Blackbird's upcoming production of Don Juan, we thought we would look at a different part of the creation process.

Prior to arriving at a final concept LMPR will meet with the client to discuss the intellectual, emotional, and thematic qualities that are present in a piece. These elements are discussed and ideas of how they might be represented are shared with a designer, who will prepare a variety of concept sketches.

For Don Juan, these representations would include the female form, swords, fire, and, of course, the notorious Don himself. Here are Copilot Design's initial sketches and the process by which they became the final poster:

It was decided that the final sketch best captured the Don's smouldering intensity. It therefore proceeded to a rough composition stage showing colour and shading…

… before being painted in oil on canvas…