New look, new thoughts and some reflection

As you can see, I have updated the graphics on the blog, and there is a reason for it. I'm now going to talk about the branding of the show – which I will be able to use when presenting my idea and will make my life a little easier as I have to figure out a way to present everything that I plan to make. As I already have some experience knowing how to brand something (well, I did learn a lot from the B&L team in publications, and that that my work consists of critiquing designs and working very closely with the marketing team), it's something that I believe will make my project stand out from the rest of the non-designer's honours work.

I also believe that the marketing has to somewhat encompass everything that the music represents (my views have already made it into a blog post). In this case of branding, I'm focusing on two different things: The musical and my project. I have to reinforce the fact that the brand is all into the woods, but still be able to represent my project.

Keeping with most of the posters, I'm representing the musical with a single tree, but making it my own by making it up of letters. There is this really cool app on my MacBook called “LetterMPress” and it's one of my favourite apps (I also have it on the iPad.) It's basically a digital letter press, where you have to place the letters as though it were one. Of course it's not completely accurate to the real thing, but I think it's fine to play around with and get a somewhat aged look to any typographic piece if you don't mind spending hours hand tweaking text.

I created the tree and the other parts of the typography in this program, and I think it turned out well. I was going to put a border around it – will have to see what it looks like first. However, I think it's strong enough as it is but could always do with a little bit of tweaking. I'm not 100% sure on the colour yet, but as I'm not sure what colour the stage is going to be, colour choices can wait.

How is this 'logo' (if you can call it that) going to represent what will be on stage? I think this is the way that I will be creating trees for the popup books. As I play around with the LetterMPress, I should be able to make a few different looking trees a set of four for each book that I want on stage (for a total of 2 spreads taken up by trees). All the typography would be in black, on a nice coloured buff piece of thick cardboard/whatever material that is suitable to use for the pop-ups. It will be as though all the letters from the story will have merged into a few odd looking trees, and this represents the musical as a fractured fairy tale.

I still haven't seen a live show as of yet in this year, which I know is bad of me. I have had a heap of opportunities to go and see a show, and talk about their use of typography. However, I still think that most people tend not to use typographic features in their stage designs because it can detract a heap from the performance. I'm just hoping that I'm not breaking a giant rule of stage design by using typography on stage, but I guess that's what my honours thesis is about – are we able to use it even though that many people think that it should be used?

I don't see only typography on stage as a giant revolution, it can only work in some cases and may work if you go with a minimalistic set design. The cases that typography will work is mainly when the musical/play is based off a book already. Even so, I don't think Les Miserables will benefit from the students wielding guns made out of J's and t's, or the Valjean stealing an silver candle stick made from a c and 2 y's. It's such a serious musical that even though it had been based off a book, using letterforms in that case will modify the emotion that is evoked from the musical.

I don't think that this is a problem with Into the Woods. It already is a light hearted musical, and the fact that everything is made out of letters will be amusing enough for the audience, but the actors will be able to shine though the use of typography and all attention will turn to them.

Initial Sketches: Books, Books and More Books

I promised you sketches and they are going to be in this post. I did these sketches on the way to work while I was next to someone that was working on some graphic design work on the train on his MBP. I then got into the mood and thought about what I wanted to do for the stage. I don't have a certain stage in mind, so I'll have to find a set of dimensions to work off, but these are just initial ideas.

My primary concept is about the stage being an oversized adult's study table; basically somewhere you would find a bunch of books. As it's all about what parents tell children, there would be a bunch of "serious" leather-bound books that the parent has in his/her collection, but amongst them all is a bunch of fairytales in colours that stand out from the bunch of books. A single pile of books are treacherously stacked on the left (hello, Rapunzel's tower!), while a few are laying open on the stage.

As the first song starts, the curtains rise and you see Cinderella, Jack, and the Baker and his wife in a tableau in front of their respective books (the baker + wife would be standing down-stage of a book with no title - representing them starting their story - the ending will have the "same" book with "Into the Woods" to represent the closure if their story.)

My first sketch is my overview of the whole stage without extraneous details - just the backdrop and the most outer/down-stage leg of the stage. It's really simple, all the books will be of neutral colours, maybe with a splash of a red burgundy for some interest. There could also be a way to allow the actors to move through the backdrop – primarily allowing the mysterious man to move quickly and deftly to different parts of the stage.

My second sketch is me trying to figure out the logistics of what I want to do. The main words that I have taken from this sketch is “Pop-up book” and that's what I had in mind. However, I just need to find a way to make sure that a 2m pop-up will work. Like which materials to use, how will the book look like after the treatment, how will I counter turning the pages and the obvious change in height of the books. I have to talk to some people that are skilled in set design to see what their thoughts are, and how they would implement my idea. I know that there is a world record for the worlds largest pop-up book, so there is a chance to figure it out.

I think with the pop-up books, it will make the world on stage a little more magical. As the first scene is nearing it's end and all of the people that are moving into the woods have left their houses, all the actor/stagehands have to do is turn to the the next “pages” of the books and trees made out of letters will pop-up and suddenly everyone is wandering through the woods. Red Riding hood is approaching her grandmother's house? Get the wolf to turn the page, and hide in the house. Want a change of trees? Flip another set of trees during the Midnight songs. How do you signify that the blind Giant has stumbled though this neck of the woods. Close all the books. Maybe I have to do some researching into similar stage designs, but that's later.

However, that's what all my second sketch is all about! I'm thinking of only allowing myself 5 spreads per book, so that the books aren't too thick. I think that should be more than enough for the books, I just have to figure out how to get Red Riding's book onto the stage, I'm pretty sure that most of the books will basically be unmovable once they have been set, and I will have to find a way to slowly lower the books down to start the show.

One of the biggest problems that I can think of is visually represented in the bottom righthand corner of the second image. That is that the pages will slant if I keep them “traditionally” bound, and that means that will basically be untreadable and potentially could be an OH&S issue. Either I have to find a different way of binding that will make it stable/flat every time that it turns, or make the pages flimsy yet durable so that the difference is negligible. I'll get back onto the drawing board.

Newspapers and periodic tables - Current typography trends that I have seen

Because I can't get to sleep, and there isn't anything better to do at this moment then watch old episodes of SBS cooking shows, I'll write about what my current thoughts of how typography is currently used on stage, referencing things that I remember or watched before.

Every time that I remember seeing a typographic element on the stage would be only to suggest a time period that the musical is set in, or where the current part of the play was set. I even remember creating some prop design for the musical Jekyll and Hyde; a newspaper front cover that the newsboys were holding up.

For this piece of work, I had to research for a few hours, looking for a source of how newspapers looked like in the 1880's. No pictures on front pages, justified text in three columns, the setup of the dates. Very different to the visual styling of the front pages of current newspapers, that's for sure.

Another memory from the Jekyll and Hyde set was a high school periodic table of the elements which appeared in the first few rehearsal runs, then was taken away. It was being used to signify the fact that one corner of the stage was Jekyll's lab – but a few people pointed out that it didn't make sense IN THE PERIOD that the musical was set. They hadn't found many of the elements in the year 1888, so why would them have Uranium on the periodic table.

In shows that I have seen, type is usually seen as a only read once type of thing, then becomes invisible as the action always happens elsewhere. The latest musical that I have seen (just a few hours ago in fact) was the Melbourne production of Love Never Dies on DVD (I do wish I was there though). This time, however, I think the typography was used to signify the place that the musical was set, rather than the time – though it did connote time period, but was very outweighed by the type of performances that the show framed.

And now for the title piece – Into the woods. As I have said before, I have performed the show, and I have also seen the musical through a DVD. However, if I remember correctly, both had NO elements of typography in them. However, I remember when I was Into the Woods crazy, and I was researching the opening number, I watched a video with a very minimalistic set, but used letter blocks for props and set designs.

This fascinated me. Even though it could've been a figment of my imagination, it actually works. The typography is there, but really isn't as the letters by themselves don't connote any meaning. It reflects and portrays that children are important to the moral of the story. This has pushed me along with my stylistic thoughts stage design in particular.

I was to use books as a main design element, as many stories are conveyed through books. And of course, books have to have words in there, and it's the way that I will introduce all the typographic elements into the musical. As with any book, the letters make up the story. If I treat the typography correctly, as make the characters look as though they have fallen out of their respective books, then I think the typography will work.

The typographic groupings would have to be:-

• Rapunzel's story – The Baker and his wife, the mysterious man, Rapunzel and the witch
• Cinderella's story – Cinderella, stepmother, father, step sisters
• Red riding hoods story – Red riding hood and grandmother
• Jack's story – Jack and his mother
• The Princes – Cinderella's and Rapunzel's prince, steward and the wolf
• All groupings – The Narrator

Why are the princes separated from their story lines? They will primarily be using the typography from their respective story, but will have other lines of type from other stories that involve a prince. I've always seen them as jumping from the next 'conquest' to the next, in reality being all the princes at once, by the fact that they have lost the initial excitement of the relationship (it's all about the chase with these guys) they they find Sleeping Beauty and Snow White.

Anywho, aside from the digressions, I think that typography has to be able to shine once, then become part of the background. If this were to ever become live, I don't want the audience to be looking at the stage design and wondering what words the letters have made. I need them to be looking at the actors, so I have to find a way to make the typography subliminal but noticeable, or make the actors stand out from the books. Well, that's all in the experimentation.

Now it's time for some plugging. My friend Emma has her own blog about her honours project. It's also on the side bar if you are looking for it elsewhere. A primary illustrator, I wish that I had a bit of her talent. It will make my sketches a lot more refined (you'll see when I have to put some up... some quick sketches of my initial ideas are coming up soon) We've made a pact to write a whole bunch, thinking that people may want to read about 45,000 per week, we've paired up in this journey. It'll keep us motivated as well.

She's doing her honours project on "Sydney 2050" and hopefully there will be more hovering stuff and better tv. Not that SBS cooking shows are bad or anything.