Portfolio
- Theatre of the Dales
- The Dive Bureau
- HUU Drama Society
- Other Work
Theatre of the Dales is a professional touring theatre company based in Leeds. I am responsible for producing their posters and flyers, managing the website and designing their programmes.
(Click the thumbnails for larger images)
Website
The website was the key resource for showcasing the company to potential clients and audiences.
It needed to be professional, visually appealing and user friendly.
Features:
- Slick flash animation on home page
- Interactive menu bars
- Yahoo calendar (integrated with Paypal for ticket purchases)
- Lightbox gallery
- Contact form
- Newsletter signup form
- Footer graphic changes depending on season (Javascript)
- Pages scale in relation to browser
size/screen resolution
Company stationery
The company had a fairly clear idea of what they wanted for their stationery, but it was left up to me to implement it in a pleasing, professional and effective design.
Posters and flyers
The advertising for a particular show not only has to be eye-catching, but it also needs to reflect the themes and design of the play which it is promoting.
Programmes
A theatre programme has to be both informative and desirable in order to provide a new source of revenue for the company.
The design of these programmes was in keeping with the overall concept of the plays - Twelfth Night (done in a 1920's style) had art-deco elements, whilst A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960's style) had psychedelic colours, flowers and 60's style fonts. The Merchant of Venice was very traditional, and included a lot of reference to Venice, the canals and the water.
I also included advertising space for local businesses as a further source of income (I designed the adverts for them on request as well).
(Cover photography by Rob Bowden)
The Dive Bureau is a PADI registered SCUBA diving shop in Harrogate, near Leeds. I did numerous small projects for them including Club membership cards, gift vouchers, invitations, information leaflets and information sheets on UK diving destinations. I also did a full redesign of their website.
(Click the thumbnails for larger images)
Promotional material
Vouchers - I created these custom vouchers to be multi-purpose and easily editable, so that they could be used for courses, specific shop items or pure monetary values. I included a date and signature area on the reverse as a way of validating them and preventing copying.
Club cards - The Club was an important social part of The Dive Bureau. These membership cards were a simple way of keeping track of club membership, confirming eligibility for discounts and establishing the "club" feeling. The simple bubble motif echoed other Dive Bureau iconography, creating brand consistency.
New Club Logo - The club changed its name to Cold Bath Divers (the address of the shop was Cold Bath Road), and needed a new logo. I created this fun illustration to reflect the light-hearted nature of the club, and also their desire to dive (even in the bath!).
Website
The website needed to be simple, informative and visually pleasing. I used a blue colour scheme with bright orange for headings and other highlights, echoing the underwater world and the vivid colours of tropical fish. A slick flash intro page and flash navigation bar elevated the visual interest of the site, whilst not being too "showy".
Unfortunately the company closed before the site could go live.
Features:
- News feed
- Flash animated banner/menu bar
- Photo galleries
- Interactive course descriptions
- Staff biographies
Also planned (but not implemented):
- Members only forum
- Training calendar
I was the publicity officer for the Hull University Union Drama Society. I was responsible for promoting all the performances and social events, including the big annual awards ceremony "The Oscars".
(Click the thumbnails for larger images)
Show/Social Posters
Halloween - The society has many social events during the year, and Halloween is one of the most popular. This poster helped set the "spooky" tone.
Blood Brothers - This was performed by the society in 2006. To publicise it, I used a classic image of the two lead actors with hands clasped, which is very reminiscent of the original Broadway poster. This meant that people could instantly recognise which play we were doing, even with only a passing glance.
The Oscars
The Oscars is the highlight of the society calendar. This black-tie event is a combined dinner and awards ceremony where the achievements of the previous year are recalled and rewarded.
The poster was created to evoke scenes of 1920's Hollywood glitz, whilst the design of the tickets, table menus, certificates and award plaques was consistent and again reflected the classic 1920's theme.
I have done a variety of freelance projects, ranging from academic work, to adverts for local businesses, and illustrations for books.
(Click the thumbnails for larger images)
"Voices" lecture poster
I was asked to design a simple poster advertising a series of talks within the School of English at the University of Leeds. The lectures were about the way different areas of the country speak and use different words.
ABC Award in Design and Layout skills
As part of my ABC Award in Design and Layout skills (Leeds College of Technology) I undertook a number of briefs, such as designing a vector-based advert for the course we were doing, or designing the front page of a travel magazine.
Adverts
I created a number of small adverts for the "Midsummer Night's Dream" programme.
Illustrations
This vector rendering of a hand of cards and poker chips was created as part of a larger project. The chips were rendered in 3D and the shadows were set to bring the whole scene to life.