Thread: Spin off- promotional posters

The owner of the restaurant where i do the schedule, has asked me to create a poster for his front window. Bellydancer centered. The one he has up, has the clip art picture of a bellydancer on it and he admits that it doesn't look great.
I have given him numerous photos to work with but he wants me to mock it up.
where do i start?
I'm not sure what exactly to put on it. Since he has multiple dancers, I dont want it to just be me. Even though he said to use my picture. My thought is that showing variety would be best. Should i put each dancer's website? just the show?

He has offered no help

Advice?

Originally Posted by latriamou

The owner of the restaurant where i do the schedule, has asked me to create a poster for his front window. Bellydancer centered. The one he has up, has the clip art picture of a bellydancer on it and he admits that it doesn't look great.
I have given him numerous photos to work with but he wants me to mock it up.
where do i start?
I'm not sure what exactly to put on it. Since he has multiple dancers, I dont want it to just be me. Even though he said to use my picture. My thought is that showing variety would be best. Should i put each dancer's website? just the show?

He has offered no help

Advice?

I think you need to use one of your Betty Boop pictures. ..g.:

Maybe you could use a detail of your picture so it's not obviously you but more just a bellydance impression.
Like this:
(this is just a pic I borrowed from the net and cut as an example. I don't intend to keep it for long.)
Makes a nice space for putting the text too.

With posters, it's important to avoid clutter.

I say go ahead and use your own photo - if you're doing all the work, you deserve to have the "fame". Besides, if you're the scheduler, you're already kind of in a leadership position there.

If you're really opposed to having it be "all about you", ask the owner if he would consider displaying more than one poster. If he does, then you can go ahead and do a poster featuring you, and you can tell the others that the opportunity exists for them to create their own posters featuring themselves. This would give them the power to do it or not.

If the above isn't feasible, try this - use a photo of yourself, but try to make it look less like you specifically. For example, do you have a pretty photo showing you from the back? Can you use fancy effects in PhotoShop such as blur or artistic filters to soften your facial features and make it seem more abstract?

Since you're making only one, I recommend doing something full-color, like my bus poster in the other thread at http://www.bhuz.com/forum/business-b...look-like.html . If you design it to an 8x10 dimension, you can take the jpg file to your local drugstore and have it printed like an 8x10 photo, which looks really beautiful. They're pretty inexpensive these days.

As for what to put on it, the usual rules are:

• Avoid paragraphs of text. They make it look cluttered.
• Think through the guideline of who, what, when, where, why, how, and price. Pick only the ones which are meaningful. If it's being put in the window of the restaurant, you don't need to include "where" because it'll be obvious. I'm thinking something like, "Belly Dancing" in great big letters, and then "Every Friday night at 7:00 pm" (or whatever applies). Don't list all the dancers and their web sites (not even yours) because honestly, the public probably isn't going to give a damn and it'll make your poster look cluttered. The words "belly dance" represent the "who" in this case.
• Restrict yourself to no more than two different fonts - one artistic, and one readable. The headline "Belly Dancing" goes in the artistic font. Everything else goes in the readable one. Try to use no more than 2 different font sizes for the readable one, and don't overdo italics, bold, and underlining.
• Don't put all the individual dancer web sites. Just put the restaurant's phone number and web site.

You can feature the multiple dancers by either putting them in boxes, blending each of their images together or taking them out of the background (so it is just the dancer only) and maybe lining the dancers a couple of each side and some on the bottom. Or have one dancer featured and the other dancers surrounding her.

1st though is decide on the theme of the poster and what you want to portray. You can get high quality nice background photos from istockphoto.com where images start at a $1.

Does the restaurant have a color scheme? If so, you can use that color scheme (unless it is butt ugly) as your starting part and so that your poster coincides with the decor that the restaurant has.

I have designed a poster for a charity gala that I am helping put together (you can see what I did on the bhuz meetup forum). Maybe that can give you an idea.

Also choose one font for your headline and one font for info.

I hope that helps.

hmm... i think i have one that is just a torso shot that i could use.
thanks! that's a great idea.
any others?

Originally Posted by *Shira*

With posters, it's important to avoid clutter. [*]Restrict yourself to no more than two different fonts - one artistic, and one readable. The headline "Belly Dancing" goes in the artistic font. Everything else goes in the readable one. Try to use no more than 2 different font sizes for the readable one, and don't overdo italics, bold, and underlining.[/list]

You were reading my mind! LOL!

Originally Posted by *Shira*

With posters, it's important to avoid clutter.

I say go ahead and use your own photo - if you're doing all the work, you deserve to have the "fame". Besides, if you're the scheduler, you're already kind of in a leadership position there.

If you're really opposed to having it be "all about you", ask the owner if he would consider displaying more than one poster. If he does, then you can go ahead and do a poster featuring you, and you can tell the others that the opportunity exists for them to create their own posters featuring themselves. This would give them the power to do it or not.

If the above isn't feasible, try this - use a photo of yourself, but try to make it look less like you specifically. For example, do you have a pretty photo showing you from the back? Can you use fancy effects in PhotoShop such as blur or artistic filters to soften your facial features and make it seem more abstract?

Since you're making only one, I recommend doing something full-color, like my bus poster in the other thread at http://www.bhuz.com/forum/business-b...look-like.html . If you design it to an 8x10 dimension, you can take the jpg file to your local drugstore and have it printed like an 8x10 photo, which looks really beautiful. They're pretty inexpensive these days.

As for what to put on it, the usual rules are:

• Avoid paragraphs of text. They make it look cluttered.
• Think through the guideline of who, what, when, where, why, how, and price. Pick only the ones which are meaningful. If it's being put in the window of the restaurant, you don't need to include "where" because it'll be obvious. I'm thinking something like, "Belly Dancing" in great big letters, and then "Every Friday night at 7:00 pm" (or whatever applies). Don't list all the dancers and their web sites (not even yours) because honestly, the public probably isn't going to give a damn and it'll make your poster look cluttered. The words "belly dance" represent the "who" in this case.
• Restrict yourself to no more than two different fonts - one artistic, and one readable. The headline "Belly Dancing" goes in the artistic font. Everything else goes in the readable one. Try to use no more than 2 different font sizes for the readable one, and don't overdo italics, bold, and underlining.
• Don't put all the individual dancer web sites. Just put the restaurant's phone number and web site.

Shira, you're awesome!
thanks!

Is the restaurant going to reimburse you for your costs?

Where I was dancing, they kept asking me to made fliers for them, but didn't want to pay for them. I was going to make some when I had time and had a free offer from Vistaprint, but they cancelled dancing there for the time being.

Also, I would make it representative of what the patrons will see when they dine there. If you picture Bella, don't have L.Rose dancing there. (Although I know you ARE Bella)! ..g.:

Originally Posted by SandraDances

?

Where I was dancing, they kept asking me to made fliers for them, but didn't want to pay for them. I was going to make some when I had time and had a free offer from Vistaprint, but they cancelled dancing there for the time being.

If you are making posters and flyers for mostly advertising that "the restaurant has great bellydancing, come here and eat" then I think they should at least pay for the print. However if it's mostly about "Me and the other dancers dancing at this restaurant, come and see us" then you could maybe share the costs among the dancers? Or I don't know, it might be tricky to figure out.
If you are giving your time (which is money) then I think the restaurant should pay for the print.

he told me he would cover the cost. of course, that's before i've actually done anything. but he's been good about things like this.