Working on any project is a process.
An easy undertaking can often take longer than expected.
This is what happened with the making of the poster for The Rainbow Bridge.
The final product is excellent but it was a struggle to get it to completion.
I’m sharing a peek of the process to show that sometimes things don’t come easy.
First, I researched designers by getting referrals and then looking up their work.
I contacted the ones that would be a good fit for this project.
I always make contact with more people than I’m looking for because so many people don’t respond.
And that is exactly what happened in this case. After reaching out to 5 people only 2 responded.
Then, I sent the two that responded a link to the film and described to them what I was looking for in a poster.
Specifically, the poster needed to convey the light and dark tones of the film.
These two designers said they would get a quote to me.
Well, one stopped responding after that exchange even with follow up emails.
The other kept saying they were going to get me a quote. But after several weeks, they responded that they weren’t able to work on this project.
Boo.
After thinking about it, I figured I could make it myself.
I found this awesome online tutorial on how to make a movie poster. I followed it…but the results were not good.
It didn’t work because the style didn’t lend itself to the photo assets I have for this film.
But I still liked this designer’s work. So, I contacted him and he responded asking to know more about the project.
I sent him the same info as above…then…he declined the project. Well, ok.
Moving on.
I contacted another designer who was a referral that didn’t get back to me.
I was getting frustrated at this point.
How do you expect to get work if you don’t follow up with potential customers?
Then, I asked my photographer if she has a referral and she said yes.
Off goes another email that I did not expect to get returned.
But, she replied! Hallelujah!
I guess, 5th times a charm - or was it 6th? It’s hard to keep track at this point.
With a designer on board, now the fun part can begin.
After agreeing to her quote, she took a few days and then came back to me with several ideas.
The director and I liked the minimal illustration look.
Next were a lot of design tweaks: change this color, add this shape for emphasis, here is the font, and so on.
Something weird happened in this process.
The files got distorted through the emailing process and what I was seeing wasn’t what she was sending over.
But I liked what I was looking at.
The rainbow turned from a arched gradient to a square angled colored blocked object.
I had her recreate the square rainbow in the next iteration.
Then we played with adding clouds and having a red sky, but ultimately we all opted for a bit more scaled version.
My director made a good point. He said,“What is the smallest number of visual elements you need to tell the story of The Rainbow Bridge?” He was right.
So the clouds went and the sky turned back to blue.
There was more tweaking trying to get the image balanced.
Then yea! We had out poster after 6 months.
Again, people who work on their own projects need to know that things don’t come easy or easily enough.
Is it ‘hard’ to send emails back and forward and work on the design? No.
But it is hard not ‘giving up’. Especially, when what seems like a relatively easy thing to do - get a poster made - takes a lot more time and energy than expected.
Actually, that is something that I’m realizing as time goes on.
If you want to execute something really well, it takes more time and energy than you think you will need when you first start.
So, keep working on your projects. You will get them done.
Here is the poster!
Amanda!
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