Event symbol poster

The pattern

This still is filed under Event symbol poster.

Define

A symbol or allegory that makes an event feel like a destination. Not a timetable. A magnet.

Mechanism

Attraction by emblem. Date and venue ride under a picture that already means come.

Verdict

We are filling a room, a night, or a run of dates

Why it works

The design uses figure-ground reversal instead of shading: half the woman is printed, half is bare paper, so a two-colour screen print reads as a full illustration and costs almost nothing to produce. The red keyline box around the title is the only red mass on the sheet, which forces the eye to the play name after it has finished with the figure. Type is stacked in a strict hierarchy of decreasing institutional weight - producer, venue, news claim, title, authors, dates - so a passer-by can stop reading at any line and still have the useful fact.

The big idea

A play seen nowhere else yet: the world premiere of African Vineyard, announced beside a tall woman carrying the vineyard's harvest on her head.

The offer

Performances of the world premiere at the WPA Federal Theatre Playhouse, Tulane and Miro, Dec. 14 thru 19. No prices are shown.

The proof

The WPA Federal Theatre billing and two named authors, Gladys Unger and Walter Armitage.

Lines from the ad

"AFRICAN VINEYARD"

WORLD PREMIERE OF

DEC.14 THRU.19

Steal this when

Steal the split-silhouette illustration when you have two colours, cheap stock and need an image that still looks designed rather than under-printed. Steal the descending hierarchy when a launch announcement has to work at three reading distances at once.

The emotion

Written to Excitement. It makes the Say move.

WORLD PREMIERE OF promises a play no one has seen yet, then the poster closes with the dates, Dec. 14 thru 19, and the playhouse at Tulane and Miro.