Hand Lettering for the Theater

[Site Man]

OLD FORUM POSTS

Posted by Barbara Schilling on July 08, 2002

Well, I have finally found a place I can do more hand lettering. THE THEATRE. Our family is heavily involved in a community theatre here in Anoka, and almost every show requires stuff that lends itself to hand treatment! Yesterday i did 5 showcards. Today I am doing 3 more, plus a couple of train station signs. The show is Bye Bye Birdie, set in the early 1960's. No 'puters then! It is volunteer work, naturally. Amanda is Ursula, Nicole is in the orchestra, and Mariah is a dancer. The show opens July 12, runs every day through the last weekend of July, except for Mondays.

Sign Station
http://www.signstation.com/

Barbara Schilling

I have been involved with a business coach for a couple of months, and one of the concepts that has come up a lot is "niche Marketing". I think I could take the Theatre "niche" to the professional level if I made the effort. This metro area has at least a dozen pro and semi-pro theatres that PAY for stuff. Hmmmmm. Gotta work on that.

Mike Jackson

I've seen a pattern here when Darla does the bulk of her handlettering. Probably 80% of the time, it is for the church, school, or middle school booster club. In those cases, she does them because she "wants to do them", often as a donation and there isn't a big rush or time constraint. She also makes a lot of gift signs for her friends and teachers, and most of them are hand lettered.

She will also hand letter a big vinyl banner if it would take up a lot of vinyl or have awkward seams, and especially if we get to pick the fonts that are easy to letter. (Cooper Black, Goudy, VAG and so forth) Quite a few logos get handlettered, especially if the artwork is a little rough for scanning and getting good vector art.

We also do a lot of cut and roll large letters with outlines done with brush and paint, though working in a single car garage limits the size and number of larger panels we can handle now.

Have fun on the Theatre work. There is usually a lot of freedom on those kinds of projects. Martin's Showcard Book would be a close time frame if you need inspiration.

Mike Jackson