Nottingham Playhouse: Festival Posters

The Goal
Following the Covid-19 lockdowns, the Nottingham Playhouse launched their "Unlocked" festival to welcome live audiences back into the theatre. The lineup featured a mix of local creative projects, including independent short film screenings, poetry nights, and new play readings. They needed a series of posters and digital banners that gave each specific event its own unique visual style, while keeping everything clean, professional, and consistent.

What I Did
I built a flexible layout system that allowed me to easily shift design styles to match the completely different genres of the events. Instead of using standard computer typography, I hand-lettered custom headline titles to give projects like the poetry nights an authentic, tailored feel. I then used a clean, high-contrast grid system to make sure the final designs kept their absolute sharpness whether they were printed onto physical venue posters or formatted as digital website headers.

The Result
The theatre team walked away with a clean, versatile suite of event identities for their reopening season. By pairing custom, hand-drawn elements with a disciplined layout, the final posters gave independent local filmmakers and performers a commanding, professional look on the high street, helping the historic Nottingham venue bring live culture back to the city with maximum visual impact.