{Chicago band The Detholz! are coming to Birdy’s on July 17 ••••••• Another must see is God Made Robots.}

Gig Posters are often a designers best creative outlet, because of two things:

1. Great Music

2. Less restrains on the normal content guidelines of a project/client

You can get more abstract if you want to (depending on the band) or follow a certain theme that will not only compliment the band/music style but attract the eye to your poster.

I couldn’t tell you the exact formula for creating the perfect poster, I’ll be honest, I’ve never created a poster that I was so in love with that I felt it was perfect. I’m kind of a pessimist in that way-there’s always something wrong that I want to fix or “do better.”

I believe creating a great poster design has a lot to do with finding an object, theme, story to pull from and building around it. The artwork should stand out bold but still allow the reader to figure out the name of the band and venue. There may be other info you need to include like ticket prices and sponsor/promoter logos, but if your design can incorporate the important information without distracting from the focus of the poster, you’ve figured it out.

A grid is always helpful too. If you get anxious thinking about a grid, just think of it as a blueprint that helps you figure out where info or art can go, and you can change it at anytime. You will also need to figure out if you want the flow of the design to be vertical or horizontal, broken in thirds, or simply scattered into a pattern-like distribution.

{Another version of The Detholz! poster that is a little weaker in organization-I plan on turning it into a wallpaper with more black space.}

There is a weight and clarity to poster art. If you shove too much information onto it without sketching or figuring out a grid or  some way to organize the text with the art-the poster will appear cluttered and the excitement or mystery it could of brought is lost.

Unless it’s a festival with several acts and events going on at the same time, putting everything including a google map into a poster design will be terribly hard to balance. You can be selective about how much info needs to be included. Anything that will overcrowd the poster or appear as overwhelming with info, can usually be fixed by directing people to a web site for more info or suggest a program/take away piece the day of the event with more info on it.

Holy Trinity Parish is one of the oldest Catholic parishes in Indianapolis. My Slovenian grandmother along with her parents and grandparents were members. For Slovenian American history it’s a wonderful landmark for the city.

Since Holy Trinity is like family to me and they do pay for my services normally, every once in a while they ask for me to help out when the budget just doesn’t have the stretch it needs for posters. The events that Holy Trinity have been putting on lately are used to raise money and awareness for the restoration of Bockhold Hall (the event hall used at Holy Trinity parish) and to keep the parish going throughout the year. In my eyes it’s a good cause.

This is an instance where as a designer I can give back to the community with a pro bono project.

I can’t afford to donate my services all the time, so deciding what are important community contributions I want to make, drive my choices for pro bono projects. What can make the deal worthwhile for me is negotiating with the client for the following four things (number four should be yours no matter what):

1. Credit for the work created. The logo of my company is branded onto the piece along with web site listing. Often the organization/client will have you listed as a sponsor so don’t forget to ask about sponsor listing on any other printed event materials (programs/tickets/t-shirts)  as well as on the client’s web site – especially if promotion will be occuring several months to a year before the date of the event.

2. Tax write off. I keep track of the time and place a dollar value to the project, then let my accountant know that I will be writing it off as a donation. (Donations = tax breaks)
NOTE: Beware of how much time you spend on a pro bono project and set expectations with the client that you cannot go over “x” amount of hours or revisions to finalize the project. Your time is still money, so if you need to push back and ask them to make a priority list or keep their revision changes to two rounds-be polite but communicate this in the beginning of the process.

3. Free admission to the event. In exchange for doing the poster I also get tickets to the event, which by the way has the most amazing sausage you will ever eat in your lifetime.

4. Portfolio work. You have a wonderful piece to show off in your portfolio.

So really giving back to the community can be a win/win situation if you have these four items.

Here’s one for Friday night’s show at the Upper Room.