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Red Goes on Tour

Graphic designers frequently encounter challenges to test their abilities when communicating to the masses. Barring Twitters or print ads, the theater poster still remains a viable promotional tool for stage productions.

The Tony Award winning play Red is scheduled to appear in 30 regional playhouses for 2011-2012 season. So how does a designer interpret this Broadway hit (about the Abstract Expressionist painter Mark Rothko) in a poster for each locale?

The NY Times ran a sampling of some the unique approaches used to advertise the play's opening. Designs ran the gamut from representational figures (reminiscent of Saul Bass) to pure text treatments surounded by pulsating reds. Each solution is worth checking out for their visually compelling, yet restrained statement at tackling the complex intent of an artistic vision performed by this two man ensemble.
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