My dad has been writing and putting on plays for about three years now, and last year he and his wife formed an official theater company, 2nd Act Players. This was also the first year that they produced not only a play written by my dad, but a second play by another playwright. They also expanded into improv and are currently holding a one act contest. It's been growing a lot, and I hope it continues on in that direction. You can read more about the 2nd Act Players at evanston2ndactplayer.com.
I worked together with them and a few board members to create a theater logo. I thought about it from two different sides. First, the black box. All theater starts as just an empty box that can be filled with a million different stories. A theater company who puts on all different plays needs to have some of that black box quality, where any feeling can be applied onto it. The other side, then, is the emotional personal side. From people, by people, for people. It seems a personal thing to watch someone act. I wanted it to be a combination of a simple clean sans serif and a script font to show those two sides.
After many trials and errors, everyone agreed on the above final logo. I really like how the ascender from the L fits right in below the superscript 'nd'. Everything in its right place. The organization size of my brain is very pleased.
I then went on to create a poster and other collateral for my dad's third play - Boys in the Basement. This was a story about divorce, but told from a unique perspective. While most stories we hear about divorce all focus on the woman and children, this was from the man's perspective. It was set in an apartment building filled with divorced guys, all with varying degrees of hope left. It was a pretty intense serious play, so I wanted the poster to feel a little bit rough, too.
I drew the chairs by hand, then scanned it in. When I usually would clean up lines and shapes in Illustrator, I instead left them shaky and uneven. These mismatch chairs are where the divorced guys would hang out in the basement. I added a barred window and broke up the background into two colors to make it more obviously a basement. Then I added a woodgrain texture overlay to give it an all around more masculine feel. I think it turned out really well and fit perfectly with the play.
See more of my work for the 2nd Act Players here and read my thoughts about their previous plays here and here.