Architecturally speaking (Creative Juice)

Something that is often overlooked today when in the throws of the creative process is the use and/or influence of architecture. I am lucky enough to have lived near Detroit for the last twenty plus years. I know to the rest of the world Detroit has a less than desirable status but I can tell you the people are great and the old architecture is second to none from a creative standpoint.

My point here is to take a look around you at the architecture near you. It’s often overlooked or taken for granted yet it standsthere in all its glory and history, either grand and opulent or rundown, burned out and beaten down, you can find beauty and creative juice right in front of you if you look.

Take a look at the backdrop we did for Flogging Molly for example. A grand old building in Detroit with busted windows makes an awesome digitally printed backdrop. (http://www.sewwhatinc.com/graphic_design.php)

What is Steampunk? (Creative Juice)

According to Wikipedia, “It involves a setting where steam power is still widely used- usually Victorian era Britain- that incorporates elements of either science fiction or fantasy.” Many times you’ll see the use of futuristic machines made of brass and copper, dials and gauges and cogs that make the impossible seem likely or at least somewhat possible.

I bring it up today because I think the fantasy quality of it allows for amazing creative opportunities in a stage setting. The use of printed backdrops on a grand scale with real world brass, dials and gauges on your stage can make your audience gape in awe of your next production. Just some creative juice if you’re struggling. (see header graphics here for an example- http://www.sewwhatinc.com/graphic_design.php  

Image resolution and quality

It’s the time of year when Holiday shows are ramping up. Sets are being developed, designed and produced. I’ve worked on a couple of shows lately creating winter downtown areas complete with decorations like ribbons, wreaths, decorated trees and the like using supplied photographic assets. The one thing I’ve run into lately that I felt some people needed help with is understanding the importance of starting any design project with the highest quality imagery you can get your hands on. If you’re creating the design in house using photographic assets and assembling them to create a desired look, it will help you in the long run if you either shoot or have shot the desired photos. You can also use a stock photo house that sells royalty free high res images. Some photo houses now allow you to download up to 25 images a day for a nominal cost. Resolution, quality and image size add up to a better quality printed piece from us, and will enhance the production quality of your show.

Little Big Town Drapes

A while back I had the pleasure of working with Little Big Town to develop a custom graphic treatment for their tour with Sugarland.

The band came to me with the idea of doing four drapes that would gather near the bottom. Their vision was to capture an antique damask motif like the old wallpaper you see in grand southern homes.

For me, this was an awesome graphic challenge to tackle. I’d never designed wallpaper before much less antique damask style wallpaper. I addressed it by gathering several pieces of reference material and  addressing the design of the main larger graphic first. Having the largest piece designed helped set the tone for the project and gave me a direction for creating the smaller supporting graphics that complimented the boarders of the main graphic. The most time consuming part of the challenge was making the pattern work in a way that repeated properly. Once the pattern was complete  and duplicated properly both left and right, up and down I duplicated the pattern and sized it to fill the designated image area correctly.  I then added age to the pattern with digital custom made noise and scratches, one piece at a time, keeping in mind at all times that the design, scratches and all had to work well with the lighting effects to create mood, look and feel. The end result worked well and allowed for a dramatic compliment their show. It can be seen on this link. 

Thinking Design?

Design of a printed backdrop starts by identifying a goal or desired end result. Depending on your needs and personal taste, this can take on many different forms. The process can start with a cocktail napkin sketch and a few key words that describe look and feel or, it can be a taken from existing brand pieces such as printed collateral, new CD artwork, your web site or whatever brings you inspiration. The key is in translating that vision into a grand format that sets the tone you are looking for. 
Literal translations can work. Sometimes they don’t. That’s when its time to start thinking design.

Collaboration-

One of my favorite aspects about what I get to do is the opportunity to collaborate with a recording artist and/or their creative team.
The process usually starts out with a “wish list” of what the artist or team is looking for. I’ve been approached over the years to create all manner of designs and Illustrations for everything from backdrops to concert t-shirts. “The more off the wall the better I say. ”
I’ve found one common denominator.  That is “We all want to bring something fresh and new to the world creatively.” What Drives my passion for collaboration? “The chemistry and contribution of different artists and creative thinkers coming together for a common goal.” Lets Collaborate.

The lights are on.

Creating mood and taking a crowd to another place at a show is the ultimate goal of designing a concert experience. People often only think of stage lights in terms of the trusses that hang over the stage to create color and sometime patterns.

One thing you might want to consider in the planing stages is the use of lights through cutouts in your printed backdrop. We can print directly to opaque and see through mesh materials. Integrating both materials buy cutting out either structured shapes (windows, doors) or more random free form shapes (abstract patterns, eyes?) and then bringing the entire piece together to create awesome effects, glows and ambience. Be it a sunset effect, lights in the windows of a building or glowing eyes, etc… its up to your imagination.

3D meet 2D

Something that can give a stage a great deal of depth is the planning and integration of real world objects in front of a printed backdrop. It takes some coordination and planning can help pull off the effect but the end result is worth it.
Case in point, we did an illustration of a steam punk machine complete with all the cogs, wheels, bells and whistles for Motley Crue. ( you can see it on the header of the graphic design page on sewwhatinc.com)

The stage designer used huge barrels, copper tubes, oil drums and alike placed strategically in front of the printed piece to pull off a dark, fire breathing mad science steam punk effect.

People still come up to me and tell me how much they loved that stage. Isn’t that what it’s all about. A memorable experience.

Wood you?

Recently I was asked to create a custom wood texture and wood beams for a Kid Rock’s Born Free tour stage. The end product is a full blown Kid Rock Saloon set complete with branded, burned in Jim Beam(tm) logos and so on. This set looks like a real wood, old time western saloon. The effect is killer. The best part about this set is all the wood is actually printed fire proofed fabric. Every stair case, riser and even the bar itself is all covered in fabric that looks like thick, heavy wood beams.

For those of you that are reading this that deal with the logistics of moving a show from town to town, set up and tear down, you understand what a time saver, labor saver and money saver this is. What would normally take four men and thirty minutes to do now takes two men a few minutes because they’re not disassembling huge ridged panels. Not to mention less weight/ less fuel costs and so on. Something to think about. We can digitally create Wood, stone, Brick and Block or whatever you need and give you an awesome looking stage.

The Power of the Quick Sketch

As I mentioned in my first post, I was contacted by Megan to work on the backdrops and other soft goods for Crue Fest II tour. I had the pleasure of working with a creative genius, Mr.Scott Holthaus, to help him manifest his vision for the show.

Crue Fest II celebrated a milestone anniversary for Motley Crue’s wildly successful Dr. Feelgood album. Every detail down to the CMYK value of the tiles was carefully considered. The concept was to create the insane asylum that is indicated on the Dr. Feelgood album cover as it would look if you revisited the facility twenty years later. The concept had vast possibilities so we decided to do a series of quick sketches first to narrow down a direction. Obviously these are not award winning illustrations but more so used like a storyboard would be in a movie. They indicate size, scale and perspective as well as content so that we can cut right to the chase on the computer once the direction is decided. It does take a person of vision, like Scott, but the end result is a faster development from an production art standpoint. This project was mammoth so it did take a few weeks to complete but, the quick sketches let us work out details and cut right to production worthy art within 24 hours of our first conversation. If you’re developing an involved or complex concept, I’d welcome working out the details with you in the same fashion.