Woman in Black
For Prince William Little Theatre
This is the branding design for the play “The Woman in Black” by Stephen Mallatratt, inspired by the book by Susan Hill.
The producer and director of the show said that for their title treatment (effectively the show’s logo) they wanted to focus on the question of whether or not the woman really exists, as that is the central question of their take on the play. My challenge was to create a logo where the woman was and wasn’t there, while also paying homage to the gothic text on which it is based.
I was then asked to create an image for the advertising and the cast t-shirts that would be created. The team asked for a representation of the Eel Marsh house: the gothic manor in which the story takes place. To accomplish this, I was inspired by the starkness of woodblock prints to create a house with simple lines.
I wanted the hand to almost look like a path to the house. I considered creating a tree for the hand effect first, but having it come from below has the menacing feeling of something looming.
I chose not to center the elements to add to the slightly off-kilter mood of everything.
Here is the design translated to a 6 x 4 flier, a 11 x 17 poster, and a shirt front respectively.
