When we received news that Matt and Shannon Heaton will be performing at our University, I was given the task to design the promotional materials of the concert.
A3 poster
The design of the poster was based on a similar template that they sent to us, so I’m not going to dwell on that. But I want to focus on the design of the concert ticket.
Brainstorming & Conceptualizing
The organizers gave me a list of information that they wanted on the ticket, such as date, time, venue and the name of the concert. They basically gave me the freedom to ‘wing’ the design, which I really like (because nothing’s more awesome than having the liberty to experiment a creative direction that you have in mind).
In the brainstorming process, what I usually do is to find out more about the event that I’m designing for.
What is the concert about?
Who’s performing?
What’s the function of this ticket? And etc.
It’s important to know answers to these questions as they helped me to choose or design designs that are relevant. One important factor that I remember during one of graphics classes was that every element/art/design serves a purpose.
Since I worked closely with the organizers, I remembered receiving a concert press release. I immediately retrieved it and took a read.
What struck me after reading the release is that the connection of the couple with the Thai and Irish heritage. FYI Shannon Heaton stayed for one year in Suphanburi, learning Thai traditional instruments and the language. She speaks fluent Thai, I kid you not (she makes all of us who have stayed here more than 5 years to shame, haha). Thus, after reading the release several times, the title right at the top caught my eye.
HEATONS CONNECT THAILAND, AMERICA AND IRELAND
Whamm!
That completely hit home for me. That one phrase summarizes the release beautifully – and I knew it projected well about the couple, their concert in Thailand and in the Uni as well.
Designing
So instantly, I could visualize the image of the relevant flags, and I worked on it straight away. Since it’s going to be a music concert, I decided to insert a G-clef picture as it is perceived as a global icon/representative of ‘music’. Also, there’s a subtle shape of a guitar (which is one of the instruments that was used in the concert), represented by the orange-yellow gradient wave nestled between the clef and flags. Do you see it?
I made sure that the fonts of the Heaton Concert were the same font that I used in the Poster. It’s important to be consistent so you create a cohesive ‘branding’. Don’t you just hate it when you see the same name, all over again but in Comic Sans, Times New Roman and Tahoma? Ugh.
I did do an image Google search on concert tickets, and there was one that had “Admit One” on it. I thought that was a cool idea, so I decided to use that as well. Gotta love Trajan Pro font for that phrase – the x-height for the font are the same for all alphabet characters, and because of that, it exudes some classy feel to it.
(moving on before you think I can hear fonts talking)
What else…ah, yes, I also used the clef as “bullet points” for each info. Cool huh? :)
My autographed tickets by the couple. I know, I know I feel so 14. :)
Two days before the concert, I had to do a very last-minute banner. Totally threw me off the roof because I had to skip the whole brainstorming/conceptualizing and run straight to the designing process. Not only that, designing a big banner requires bigger resolution which means the computer will take more time to ‘digest’ the RAM, etc so I had to think quickly. So I decided to use the same ideas that I had for the concert tickets into the banner – and oh, I included the couple’s picture.
You can say that the banner is a ‘marriage’ between the designs of the concert tickets and the poster. Hehehe. Again, consistency with the same designs from the ticket and poster secure the concert brand. :)
I also included a tagline beneath the name of concert – “a Boston, Massachusetts-based Irish music duo”. This is important especially for visitors so that they can get a gist of the concert, all at one go from just skimming from the banner.
Sidetrack: One day before the concert, me, Julie and a couple of students were giving out the concert posters at the compound of the elementary school. Students were delighted (and attracted!) when they found out the music duo comes from Boston, USA. So that was our marketing line right at the beginning. “…we are having a music concert this Saturday night FROM BOSTON, USA…”
Anyway, I really enjoyed this project – I learned more about drawing curvy sides (the subtle guitar) and to just exploring more creativity with colors and ideas was a given blessing. I look forward for more projects! :)
