DESIGN GALLERY

CASE STUDY: THEATRICAL SEASON DESIGN (VOLUME 2)

National Black Theatre

Sample image from an earlier design draft.

I was commissioned by National Black Theatre to design the theme for their 2025-2026 theatrical season. I found it a good example of a case study of a client-designer relationship, as it progresses through a gauntlet of edits, inspired both by changed aesthetics, as well as external and political considerations.

Each page of the presentation shared below represents a plateau or turning point in the design, including my thoughts and choices as designer, as well as the client’s thoughts and instructions through meetings and emails.

Sample image from an earlier design draft.

In the end, the final design was sufficient for its goal — to engage the audience and ignite their curiosity about the season offerings. It was visually cohesive and thematically on point.

However, this process points to an sense of dissatisfaction inherent in the task of graphic design as the designer — one’s pure vision can never be realized, and indeed is often manipulated to an extent that one wishes elements of it were not involved at all. As an artist, the process differs from personal creative endeavors, in the sense that there is a commercial and transactional purpose for the work. For a designer, you can only hope to stand by what you’ve created, but it is a business of service, and perhaps that’s where a designer might gain satisfaction: in knowing that the client got what they desired.

NATIONAL BLACK THEATRE 2025-2026 SEASON DESIGN PROCESS

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