Leeds Theater Playbills

A follow-up post from one of our more popular posts on Vintage Circus Posters, here are some more Leeds Theater Playbill posters spanning from the 1800s-1900s.  Lately in new brand design work I've been seeing the use of a vast assortment of fonts all bunched close together, like in print magazine ads and pizza boxes and how there is a way to make it all work without looking too cluttered and all over the place--spacing, contrast, and size variation.

Posters and Graphic Design by Nathaniel Cooper (Kansas City))

Kansas City-based designer Nathaniel Cooper demonstrates a wide range of graphic style throughout his portfolio, from his fun theatre posters to his other professional work, perfectly melding clean typography with minimalist design.

16 Years of New York Theatre Posters by Paula Scher of Pentagram

Since 1994, Paula Scher has been designing very distictive posters for New York's annual Shakespeare in the Park events by The Public Theatre.  In an interview with HillmanCurtis, she describes how "The Public Theatre identity is based on being extremely loud and visible and urban."  It it due to her unique typographic style that Paula Scher is credited with creating "The first American Shakespeare poster."   A European designer once told her that  "All other Shakespeare posters were really European, until I did Shakespeare in the Park with The Public Theatre language, because they were loud and they were about words."

Featured Above: Paula Scher's most recent work under Pentagram, for New York's Shakespeare in the Park 2010.

Here's the poster for the 2008 Shakespeare in the Park, under the New York Public Theater.

Poster for Shakespeare in the Park 2000, featuring a production of Julius Caesar.

1999 Poster.

1995 Poster

1998 Poster.

This is Paula Scher's first Shakespeare in the Park poster from 1994.

1996 Poster, for a production of Henry V.

Paula Scher's notorious poster for the NY Public Theater, for the production of "Bring in 'Da noise, Bring in 'Da Funk"

"When the Noise-Funk series came out and the play first opened at The Public in 96.  From 1996-1999 there were a series of a pile of them around the street.  They were designed out of The Public Theater typographic language combined with various photographs of Sadie McGlover.  The musical is a tap-rap musical, so the typography was designed to make it look like it made noise.  They were everywhere, they were in the subways, on the rooftops, on the sides of buildings.  And what happened was it became this style, so the identity of this small theater became a popularized style. So New York City ate the identity of The Public Theatre in a way."

More recently, Paula Scher designed this official poster to commemorate the Second Chicago International Poster Biennial.

Paula Scher's famous Ballet Tech posters.

Paula Scher on TED Talks: "Design Is Serious (Not Solemn)"

Interview: Paula Scher -- The Geography of Design

"I operate really strongly on my instincts.  If I don't get it on the first crack, I get it on the second.  And if I don't get it in a second, I almost never get it.  Because it's been a very intuitive process for me: I've never been a refiner; my best work has been big bold strokes that came very quickly."
- Paula Scher




LINKS:
The Pentagram Blog
Original Post on the Pentagram Blog: New Work: Shakespeare in the Park 2010
Original Post on the Pentagram Blog: New Work: The Public Theater
Interview with Paula Scher by HillmanCurtis

Philippe Archontakis + Departement

 

 

Philippe Archontakis of the Canadian design group Departement is clearly putting out some good poster designs for Montreal.  Taking a look at Departement's blog I also stumbled upon some really fantastic live interactive design for the huge screens at Nine Inch Nails concerts.  Since most people come to Flyergoodness for the gig and show posters, I imagine that most of you appreciate cool light show designs at concerts:

And a bonus motion graphic, included for its utterly amazing motion typography:

Fernando Suárez Carballo

 

I need this in my hands so I can see AND feel how amazing this is.

 

 

 

now this is pretty sweet for a flyer...printed on wood???

 

It seems like that shiny silver ink on black is normally difficult to see, but if you're walking around a club at night and there's plenty of light posts, these might look pretty cool outdoors.

 

Not a fan of the color shceme here, but I like how the letters have some choppy depth to them

A pleasing way to display literally TONS of information on a poster

Spanish designer Fernando Suárez Carballo has a passion for making print beautiful.  As you can tell from the first few examples, he's able to manipulate color, texture and typography to present something beautifully simple to your eyes.