Fall Poster Roundup

It's been awhile since my last post on here---I hope you've been enjoying the various city sketches over at NY Illustrated in the meantime! The last few months have brought a number great opportunities to collaborate on one-shot poster projects with groups around campus (and around the world, even). Poster projects are always some of my favorite design tasks to tackle, and I've collected several of the better ones here for a bit of a fall poster roundup. Enjoy 'em!

I had a great time putting my own spin on the classic (now Disney-fied) princess Cinderella for a production running through Wesley College's theatre program---located in Australia, mate (see the banner I made for my friend Lyle for a look at my previous "down-unda" collaborations).

Fordham's ever-impressive experimental theatre troupe, FET, put on a very entertaining rendition of Little Shop of Horrors earlier this semester. (Another Disney connection here---composers Alan Menken and Howard Ashman would go on to revitalize Disney animated features with Broadway-style musical numbers soon after completing Little Shop.) For the poster, we wanted to create a piece of publicity material that might live in the universe of the show itself; and so we settled on an advertisement for the show's man-eating Audrey II, in the style of Coney-Island-meets-Disney-World.

The Residence Halls Association was all set to put on a costume contest in anticipation of Halloween---but then a hurricane came through town and shut everything down for the week. Luckily (or unfortunately?) the poster had already been completed pre-Sandy. The Charlie Brown influences are fairly conspicuous...

FET's second show of the season was an ambitious adaptation of the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The plot follows a man who undergoes a procedure to erase a former love from his memory, only to realize halfway through that he would rather hold onto the memories. Already trapped in the procedure, however, the characters must run through the inner reaches of the mind as memories begin to collapse around them. We decided to take a cerebral (literally), minimalist approach with the poster, drawing heavy influence from the amazing work of Saul Bass.

More posters to come next semester!

Jungle Boogie

The end of the school year is fast approaching, which means it's open season for school-sponsored study breaks. And the mother of all study breaks here at Fordham---RHA's annual Under the Tent dance---is shaping up to be the wildest end-of-the-year bash yet.

Playing off of this year's jungle theme, I thought it'd be fun to give the poster a bit of a Disney World land-of-adventure vibe. Whether advertising Tomorrowland, Adventureland, or just the Monorail, Disney theme park posters still manage to provide some excellent inspiration when it comes to projects like this one.

Oklahoma This Ain't

Tonight I had the distinct pleasure of seeing the greatest student-produced show in the history of student-produced shows at Fordham University this month. Cowboys Don't Sing: A Western Musical tells the epic tale of the Old West that you never even knew you desperately wanted to hear---and it tells it in verse. Excellent cast (including the best on-stage horse performances you'll see outside of War Horse), superb set designs, smart comedy, and a rocking band made for one of the most enjoyable experiences I've ever had in a cramped black box.

I got to play my small role in this soon-to-be-historic production by creating the poster featured above. The creators of the show asked me to do my best rendition of Gary Cooper's High Noon poster from back in the day. It was a ton of fun to work on, and--after seeing the final production--a very gratifying experience to be a part of.