THEATRICAL POSTER DESIGN
Working in the theatre has its benefits, not only did I design the posters, sometimes I even acted in the shows that my posters were designed for
I began my long association with The Thirteenth Street Repertory Company in November 2000, when I auditioned for and got the part of Bob Cratchit, in the Rep's annual production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
Initially my 'duties' as a member of the company was working the tech booth, during performances of the theatre's long running production of 'Line' by Israel Horowitz. Which was lucky for me because that is where I discovered the show in the first place, and I actually got to learn it before I auditioned and landed the role of Arnall. Which I eventually performed as, for over a decade, and over 750 performances at the theatre.
One of my ambitions has always been to design theatrical and film posters. As I've mentioned elsewhere, growing up I wanted to be an actor, but never had the chance to pursue it until much later in life, so I decided if I couldn't act in some thing on the silver screen or on the Broadway stage, at least my art, my designs could be showcased in the posters promoting the shows.
And seeing the posters that were currently showcased at the theatre weren't very good at the time. Sorry, I'm just being honest, 'Line' for example looked like a really bad xerox… so as I was learning the lines for my audition I was also whipping up designs I could show them. And one day, I got to the theatre after an interview for a graphics job and had my portfolio with me.
When I arrived Edith O'Hara, the owner/founder/artistic director of the theatre noticed my portfolio and shall we call it, my interview began. As she looked through my portfolio she discovered the poster designs for the theatre that I had created as examples, and happily she loved them.
Long story short, I landed the gig. And my tech booth days were over. Except when they needed me to lend a hand. Or the time, we had no tech person, so I also did the tech at the same time. Wish somebody could have video tapes that performance, you think Noises-Off was funny…
Speaking of funny, the joke in all this is, I'm slightly dyslexic, and I was more paranoid about doing tech then getting up on stage and performing. First time in my life I felt like God! You better not piss off the tech guy, your spotlight might be missing, just saying. And sometimes with dyslexia, you see or do things backwards… lets just say Tech booth technician is not something I was born to do.
The other reason why I wanted the gig was, I got to redesign the poster for 'Line' so when I promoted myself in the show, I could be excited to showcase its poster and not be embarrassed by it. Eventually after a decade in the show Edith allowed us to print a new postcard and happily my design was the one used.
During my tenure at the theatre which lasted from November 2000 to January 2013, I designed over 50 theatrical posters for the rep, and more then 100 programs and flyers. One of highlights was actually getting the chance to design the poster for my very own play. In 2003, my first attempt at playwriting, What's wrong with this picture? I'm in it! was developed and then produced the rep.
And I actually redesigned the poster for 'Line' over a dozen times, updating anniversaries and whenever there was a new take on the show. For those that do not know, the play has been performing almost continuously at the rep for over 45 years. I also designed the A Christmas Carol poster several times. As showcased above and below, here are some of my favorite designs I created for the rep.
To learn more about my history in design, please check out:
http://neilfeigeles.net/DESIGN.html
Any questions, please ask.
Neil
OFFWORLD MAGAZINE, WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN AND WHAT WAS
So you wanna put out a publication. Not so easy…
In the early 1990's I decided that I wanted to launch my own magazine. That I knew best. Well, maybe I did and maybe I didn't, but I surely had a lot of fun showcasing to the world that there was another way to go then what was out there and that just maybe I was a player in the world of design. At the time I had spent several years working in magazine publishing, I was freelancing at Ziff-Davis publishing, as a traditional board, paste-up and mechanical artist, that had transitioned to a desktop publisher. While still trying to get my foot in the door as a real designer.
I had also just finally got into the world of comics, when a friend from High School, offered me the chance to do my first professional assignment. In the comic book entitled Panorama # 1. Where I wrote and illustrated an 8 page story and the back cover. Once it came out, I began making convention appearances in New York to promote my work in it. At the first convention, I was approached by the people behind Personality Comics, to illustrate the first of over 25 covers.
As this was happening, I was working up ideas to launch my own magazine, and spent many a day contemplating what type of publication it should be. Should it be a comic book, written and drawn by yours truly, or should it be a publication to showcase, my design and art direction abilities. I researched all the genres I was interested in and as is the case with most people, the idea for the magazine just struck me like lightning. As I was standing inside a local comic store, perusing the science fiction periodicals, I found my idea. I had noticed that in the world of science fiction, the magazines were small in number, while the quality of the fiction was great, for the most part the art work was reprinted or repurposed. And my idea smacked me in the face.
I came up with, what I thought was a brilliant idea. Designing a publication that would feature writers and artists from the worlds of both comic book and science fiction and fantasy with only new art that should hopefully match the stories and editorial that our publication would showcase. I decided to design the magazine comic sized to make it easier to sell in shops and to make it a collectable.
So I launched Advanced Warning! and began the quest for talent to help me showcase my vision. I entrusted two of my closest friends from High School, Arnaldo Lopez and Tony Williams. And as has been written in other places, eventually I had come up with a different title for the magazine, after the then largest distributor in comics decided to shall we say redesign theirs to look like my original cover design.
After negotiations with them, I agreed to rename the magazine OffWorld, and then redesigned many elements of it to work with its new title and logo. Actually after all was said and done, I thought it OffWorld, was better for the genre of stories we were planning to publish.
Eventually the magazine came out, it was comic-sized, 64 pages, contained several tales of SF&F, which were all beautifully illustrated throughout with black and white and full color art. I spent 3 years working on the magazine and eventually we published 2 issues, with a 3rd on the way when I decided to end its run.
Of note: As we were publishing our 2nd issue, I had gotten word that a major publisher was gonna use our publication as freebie, it was gonna be our big push. I was informed over 100,000 copies of a mini-version of the magazine, which I designed using material from the first two issues, would be poly-bagged with it, and given away free as a promotional freebie for their mag. Sadly just I was readying the file to send to the printer, the publisher changed their mind, and the freebie never got printed. basically ending the life of my little self-published publication.
Besides the joy and wonder of seeing my idea come to fruition, the best part of creating OffWorld was getting the chance to strut myself as a designer. And even though I lost the war with OffWorld, because of my designs, I was offered an Art Director's job at Hachette Filipacchi Magazines.
So even though some might find my story a failure, I've always considered it to be my second college education. Because I learned as much or more then you could learn in four years at a design college and it cost me probably as much as a college education. I had to learn everything about putting out a magazine.
From designing the logo to art directing every aspect of it, designing all of its promotional material, convention displays and even its stationary. I had to learn about dealing with publishers and distributors and sadly attorneys too. I also learned how much I loved the magazine world, and eventually someday would like to bring back the title.
My biggest regret in the entire experience was two fold. to all our subscribers, I couldn't fulfill my promises in getting the magazine out and that all of the stories and art that I excepted and paid for including a beautiful full color illustration by the great Vincent Di Fate that was slated for our third cover, never saw print.
Anyway, above and below on my first post in my new blog, are a gallery of images from the magazine OffWorld, hope you like. In the near future I will be rescanning pages from the magazine.
To learn more about my history in design, please check out:
http://neilfeigeles.net/DESIGN.html
Any questions, please ask.
Neil
