• Black Pearl: A Tribute to Josephine Baker

    Client

    Black Ensemble Theater

     

    Scope

    Key Art
    Motion Design
    Photography
    Digital and Printed Marketing Assets
    Video, Editing and Art Direction

  • THE CHALLENGE

    Black Ensemble Theater needed a refresh when it came to key art and design direction for its main stage productions. These are their most visible and most vital mainstage money makers. With only four per year, the marketing has to prompt action.

     

     

    THE SOLUTION

    The BE audience (nostalgic boomers) and productions (musicals bringing American history to life) crave authenticity. The mood calls for it to feel nostalgic but not old, to recreate but not copy, with a bit of contemporary flair. To honor these personalities with the utmost respect, we created a look of instant recognition for the audience.
     
     

    THE RESULT

    Black Ensemble decided to use this key art and marketing going forward. All strategies became a standard in leading the theatre to a record 3 million in (annual) revenue.

  • THE KEY ART

    We set up a photo shoot, and we decided on a shot. I did edits in photoshop to give it a cleaner, vivid, and more stylized look. The feel was contemporary but nostalgic. Besides the art deco look, a grain was used to give it that vintage Hollywood film texture.

    THE LOGOTYPE

    Josephine Baker and Art Deco both rose to fame in the mid-1920s. Everything about her was of her time. Soerjapoetera, a deco typeface, was chosen specifically because of the "black pearls" substituting as crossbars for the letter A.

  • "Black Pearl: A Tribute to Josephine Baker" became BE's highest-grossing show of the 2010s. The excitement from the visuals led to this becoming the go-to direction for Black Ensemble's main stage productions."

  • THE DIRECTION

    We had to tell the story in one image. A mix of vintage photos of Josephine and contemporary superstars were used for inspiration. But one photo of the young starlet sitting in her own shadow would do. The BE formula has a "young version" and "mature version" of a character played by two actors. Young Josephine sitting in her own shadow would be used to tell the story.

    UNDERSTANDING THE AUDIENCE

    Baby boomers make up the core BE audience. They are nostalgic aficionados about the music and stars they grew up with. They crave an authentic recreation. They are most loyal when they know the music.

  • THE PHOTOGRAPHY

    The photography's art direction is used to champion the Black Ensemble mantra of "Inspire" and to showcase Josephine's carefree spirit.

  • SOCIAL MEDIA

    Once the key art process was complete, the look was applied to all touchpoints. Some places included a singular Josephine, while others featured the tandem in a young and mature composition.

    BILLBOARDS

    Billboards are used to advertise on the Black Ensemble Cultural Center site. For the first time two mirroring billiards were used to further the story of two Josephines.

    PLAYBILL

    The same branding was applied to the playbill.

  • "He came up with the proper
    look for where we are in this process."

    -Lyle Miller, Marketing Director, Black Ensemble Theater

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    Did you know Josephine adopted 12 kids she called her Rainbow Tribe?

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