Making a Design That "Pops"

Erin, here - The Seeing Place’s Managing Director. Brandon has asked me to write a few posts about some of the more business-y things that we do in order to be able to do our art. Because the fact is, if we don’t have an audience, we don’t have theater. So, I’ll be popping in occasionally to give you a glimpse at how a young theater company blends art & commerce to bring audiences to the theater.

Today, I want to talk about designing postcards, one of the most obvious blends of art & commerce. Show postcards are essential in attracting new audiences to your theater. If you’re in NYC, then you know the cards I’m talking about. They practically litter local theaters, restaurants, rehearsal studios and schools. And therein lies a key problem - how do we design a postcard that is eye catching enough to be noticed, but simple enough to be effective?

There are several considerations when designing a postcard:

1) Does your marketing have a unified concept?

2) Does it reflect the company’s branding?

3) Does it tell the reader, in a glance, what kind of show they’re getting?

4) Will the reader understand the value of the project the card represents?

5) And, finally - does it do what you need it to do?

So you can see, good marketing not only involves having a understanding of your art, but also a grasp on what makes that art attractive to a ticket-buying audience.

For fun, to demonstrate these points I’ll be using the designs we just created for our Summer Series: The Lover and Danny and the Deep Blue Sea.

1) Does your marketing have a unified concept?

This season we decided to create our postcards with a common design theme, which matches the theme of our season: “Crimes of the Heart and the Politics of Sex.” We started with the idea of a picture frame, which is symbolic of family and intimacy. Inside the frame, an ideal or sacred image from the play would be represented. Outside of the frame, there’s a symbol or image from the play that threatens what’s in the photo. For example, for Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, violence is held as an ideal, so we chose the image of a fist punching water to represent that. In the play, love & nurturing touch threaten to stop the violence, so we used a Band-Aid and lipstick kisses to imply the action of healing the violence. We also added the concept of the glass breaking under the pressure between the violence and love. You can check out all 5 designs form this year on our website to see how this theme has evolved.

2) Does it reflect the company’s branding?

Our shows are gritty, raw and intimate, so we wanted to make sure that people can tell, at a glance, what to expect at our shows. Thus, we use a lot of color, non-traditional fonts, and edgy imagery. We love to use photographs whenever possible, rather than words or graphics. We’re an indie company that values published works, so we make sure that the playwright’s name is front and center. We also are focused on organic storytelling (being “in the moment” each night so that each performance is a living, breathing organism) - so we want to make sure that our postcards have a visceral quality. We want people to know that when they come to see a show of ours, it isn’t just about entertainment. Our shows inspire audiences to think, feel and live through the events with us.

3) Does it tell the reader, in a glance, what kind of show they’re getting?

We choose fonts that give an overall sense of the play - for example - is it romantic, violent, artsy, classic? For The Lover, we wanted to use a font that would give the card a sense of refinement, but also some whimsy. Interestingly, the font we used for the title didn’t look as good for the playwright’s name so we chose a matching font that was a little more readable. You’ll also notice that we chose to add “a darkly comedic peep show” - we wanted to make sure that people had a sense of the absurdism for this play, especially given that it’s partnered with such a dark show like Danny.

We also take special care to engage the reader with the verbiage on the back of the card. For our marketing, we always choose a quote that give your an instant sense of what the play is about. We then come up with a synopsis that will, hopefully give a sense of the show without giving too much away. We also come up with a hook to explain our ticket prices. And we do all of this with a certain kind of flair that says, “We’re fun. We’re vibrant. We take this seriously.” Here are the backs of our current postcards, so you can get a sense of how verbiage will change from show to show.

4) Will the reader understand the value of the project the card represents?

It’s important for us that the reader get a sense that this is a professional show for a great price, rather than cheap theater. Oftentimes, when someone notices a low price they think, “I wonder what’s wrong with it?” The adage “You get what you pay for” seems to ring loudly in New York theater - people think that in order for the show to be good, they need to pay $75+ to see it. We’re trying to prove that low cost theater doesn’t have to be bad. So, we print high quality postcards in full color. We print 5000 for each show so that we have plenty to distribute all over the city. We try to show people that, even for $12 theater, we put a lot of thought into our marketing, which should make people feel like we also put a lot into our shows and into creating a compelling audience experience. Postcards are about establishing a sort of trust between you and the reader - what kind of product are you promising to deliver?

5) And the bottom line: does the card do what you need it to do?

Are you clear on the card about what kind of event it is? (play, musical, cabaret, stand-up, improv, opera, dance, etc?) Does it have the show times and dates? Information about ticket sales? Pricing? How about the key people involved with the show- are they listed prominently? These basics sometimes get lost in the quest for creating visually stunning postcards. When ti comes right down to it, a photocopied flyers on white paper is better than a snazzy postcard if the snazzy postcard lacks the basic information to get people to your event.

Thanks for reading -we hope this help break down some of the things we think about when we’re putting together our show postcards.

Now… what do YOU think? Are there any show postcards that have really stood out to you? Is there anything that you dislike about the cards you’ve seen as an audience member or design stumbling blocks you’ve reached as a producer? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Intrigued by what we do? Come out to see our shows! Join our mailing list here.