Logo and business cards. This small theater in East Rockaway, NY is in a former 19th century bank building. When I was asked to design their logo, there was really nothing from which to build the brand - the theater has yet to host its first performance. It was purchased in what we all hoped was the middle of the Covid pandemic. Ensuing supply-chain issues, combined with the complexity of transforming a bank into a theater/bar/restaurant, means they won’t open until 2025. Using the elegant old structure, abandoned vault and antique safe deposit boxes as inspiration, I presented 20 logo concepts. The version the client chose evokes the 19th century, theater and banking. The wordmark, with the tick over the “o,” can be used alone or as a lockup, in combination with the symbol.

During the exploration process, I developed patterns and illustrations that could work as elements on menus, programs, even carpet, and included some on the reverse sides of their business cards.

Strongbox has received favorable attention in NY Newsday, on CBS New York and in local media and has produced two outdoor theater festivals.

Poster. “A Festival of Stage and Song” was Strongbox’s second outdoor production, a group of diverse, locally written, one-act plays. I created a mostly typographical design in order to encompass the genres. I painstakingly altered existing fonts to give them a handmade, carnival quality. The colors and illustration evoke the feel of a summer evening and reinforce the brand. Repurposed for ads in NY Newsday and other local papers, programs, billboards and other promotional materials.