Babble Productions is the production company for husband and wife thespian team Tim and Ruth Gilmour. Naturally, being the mate with a design background I’m charged with putting together posters, leaflets, flyers, social banners and tiles for their yearly Fringe Fest forays. Which I do so gladly.
I’m lucky enough to have the full faith of Tim and Ruth, and have carte blanche to design each work.
Ruth gives me a brief overview of the show whilst providing a handful of photographs for possible use each year, which is enough to create a tone for the poster, which then feeds into any social collateral. Each venue typically has a templated footer to be used on A3 posters that go up in their venue, or are used as a part of Fringe Fest specific advertising.
Classifried
Their 2024 offering, and largest cast to date. Classifried follows a ‘Red Scare’ era US intelligence agency team in a sitcom style show.
I overlaid a warmer colour filter on the provided image to emphasise the 1950s/60s setting, and extended the background panels outward to cover more space. I chose Arvo for the logotype as I wanted something reminiscent of a ‘classified’ stamp, but didn’t want to follow the stencil trope. On top of this, the show is a comedy, and needed something more light-hearted than militaristic.
Vikings vs Climate Change
2023’s show followed Eric and Ingrid, two out-of-time vikings waking up from a centuries long ice-nap to a world afflicted by the perils of climate change.
The typeface is a lightly modified version of a decorative font by the name of Norse. I angled the T for a more runic feel, and padded the larger words out with a stroke. I also extended out the wall to cover the full width of the Facebook banner, and height of the poster (thank-you early generative fill). Frankly I think Eric’s hair would’ve found it’s own way in front of the lettering so I capitulated instead.
Brawl Along the Watchtower
Brawl, their 2022 show, tells the tale of two insignificant castle guards as they fend off invaders and their hapless existence at the mercy of medieval workplace politics.
Oswald, contrasting white, bold. I wanted the show info to be quickly digested so you could move onto the costumes, props and stars of the show to sell it.
Alex Nutman 