Most people don’t know that I design the promotional materials for Terra Incognita. It’s a unique challenge, because TI stages bi-monthly over the course of a year and takes place in six different settings. It didn’t seem to me like one universal poster was going to do the trick. So when Jennifer Roberts mentioned that she’d wanted to create vintage-style postcards to promote the show and also to send to Ex Nihilo patrons, I volunteered to take a shot at designing them.
How do you tackle the challenge of promoting a play about three estranged sisters on a road trip with an invisible narrator and strong overtones of the paranormal? Since the map and the darts were integral to the script, I started there. Ultimately, I decided to go with two maps. The map for the obligatory universal poster is the classroom-standard, multi-color US map we all grew up with, one that symbolizes, “road trip.” We didn’t know where we were going, so I wanted to show as many states as possible. The trip literally gets set on its ear right at the beginning, so flipping the map on its side seemed fitting. Yet somehow, this map just didn’t work for the postcards.
How do you tackle the challenge of promoting a play about three estranged sisters on a road trip with an invisible narrator and strong overtones of the paranormal? Since the map and the darts were integral to the script, I started there. Ultimately, I decided to go with two maps. The map for the obligatory universal poster is the classroom-standard, multi-color US map we all grew up with, one that symbolizes, “road trip.” We didn’t know where we were going, so I wanted to show as many states as possible. The trip literally gets set on its ear right at the beginning, so flipping the map on its side seemed fitting. Yet somehow, this map just didn’t work for the postcards.
I looked at several modern maps, but kept coming back to a particular vintage map of the southwest. We’d already performed Episode One and were rehearsing Episode Two when this whole design process began. We’d started in Nevada and were headed to Utah, so I figured I’d use this map for the first two postcards and change as we traveled east. Now, what about Nona's dart? Again, I went through several, and the green one just seemed to fit.
We’re off to a great start, but Ep. 2 takes place at an abandoned Ute Indian resort near, of all places, Skinwalker Ranch. Pretty woo-woo. So, UFO sightings, three lost and bickering sisters, an invisible sidekick and an abandoned hotel. All conveyed on one vintage-looking postcard? Thanks, Jennifer! In the end, I decided to take a beautiful, generic image of Utah and add creepy overtones. The “Mork-and-Mindy” font with the classic postcard curvy warping, the |
zombie and the UFO, the bloody tomahawk and message all just seemed to appear right when I was thinking, “what else?” Now that’s done, time to backtrack and focus on the poster and the postcard for Ep. 1.
As I’ve already said, one poster just didn’t seem like the best tool to market a year-long serial play. Still, you need one, but how to make it work? We’re talking about three playwrights, six directors, two sound artists, four core cast members and a few guest actors, not to mention six performance dates! Way too much text, I had to break it up and have it make sense, somehow. Road trip…highways…Route 66…maps…directions…lost …road signs! Talk about a godsend idea! I loved it, and I’d done a few Construction cakes a few years back, so I had plenty of blank sign images to work with. |
And why, you might ask, need I design a postcard for Ep. 1, when it had already staged? Well first, all the other episodes will have a postcard, so why not? Second, every episode was recorded to be posted on Ex Nihilo’s website later. I wanted the postcards to be the online image link to those audio files. For Reno, I really wanted to focus only on what Bridgette told us before this adventure started; that it began early one morning at a gas station in Reno. When I found an image of a gas station with a nondescript convenience mart in the background and the sun rising behind it all, I couldn’t believe my luck! Add an iconic landmark sign and Morta’s trusty Buick, and we were good to go! |
The final episode of Terra Incognita stages Thursday, October 20th at Octopus Literary Salon in Oakland. 7:00pm, admission is free but seating is limited. To guarantee yourself a spot, reserve online at exnihilotheater.weebly.com/events