Design Problem To create a versatile advertising campaign across multiple platforms for the MSU Denver Theatre Department and their production of Machinal by Sophie Treadwell.
Design Solution
This piece is an advertising campaign for the MSU Denver production of Machinal by Sophie Treadwell; a play about treachery, desperation and the desire for freedom. The aesthetics and their treatments were inspired by the setting of the play, the protagonist Helen, and in particular, the moment of catharsis that she reaches by the end. The typographic treatment of the title is a direct reference to the Art Deco movement of the early twentieth century which is the time period that the play is set in. The body copy was done in a typewriter like font to signify the occupation of Helen as a “low-level” stenographer. The double exposure of the woman and the mechanical gears is a reference to the clash between Helen as a person longing for independence, and the mechanization of society that is confining her to a life of subservience and unfulfillment. The orientation of the woman is alluring to that final moment of catharsis that she obtains; she is finally free and ascends beyond the material and societal world that inhibited her. Deliverables shown include large print (billboard and bus stop poster), small print (postcard), and digital (Instagram post, desktop banner and mobile banner).