Portfolio- Improv Camp Designs

Last week Improv Camp, which takes place on Gambier Island outside of Vancouver, wrapped up its 13th year! There's a special place in my heart for Improv Camp, where I was a camper and then a trainer for many years. I've created shirt designs for the camp for the last five years and it's a fun challenge to be given, essentially the same assignment every year.

In July I designed a two screen t-shirt design and a one screen hoodie design, both to be sold at the camp's tuck shop. Here are a few sketches, the finished designs and the designs mocked up on models:

T-shirt and Poster Designs

In the last six weeks I wrapped up designs for five different theatre and music related festivals and shows. I'm able to share three of those projects at this time.

The first is a t-shirt design for SPUNK, which is the Zurich Improv Festival. Their existing logo uses a rhino, cowboy and balloons. We wanted to keep the same elements so I re-imagined them and came up with this variation.

Secondly, I collaborated on these five posters for Instant Theatre's new season of shows. The photographs are by Dylan Maher, the concepts are by Alistair Cook and the drawn elements are by me. I had a lot of fun coming up with the hand-drawn text for these. 

 

 

And lastly, I made the t-shirt design for Improv Camp again this year. My first ever illustration job was for Improv Camp 2009, and I've made one or two designs for the camp every year since, totalling seven designs. It's interesting to see how I've grown as an illustrator using these shirts as markers. 

This year, I came up with an island with areas named for famous improvisers. The ensembles at the camp are also named after famous improvisers, so the shirt was a way of acknowledging each ensemble too.

Improv Shirt Design

A few weeks ago I wrote an article, The Role of  Improv Apparel for The Way of Improvisation, a new online resource for the improv community. I've designed over two dozen shirts for improv companies and festivals and gradually learned what makes a good design and how important that is to improvisors. 

One point I make in the article is that the shirts we wear sorta act as our resumes, letting people know where we've performed, studied, taught, etc. They're also important as keepsakes for festivals and markers in our improv careers. 

My friend and Atlanta improvisor, Rene Dellefont, has taken this to another level. In the last couple years he's got two tattoos designed around imagery and concepts from shirt designs I did, both for Improv Camp. Here are the originals and Rene's tattoos (click images for info about the tattoo shop and artist.)

Something I didn't include in the article, is how cool it feels to see people wear the designs I made! I've made two shirt designs for the Canadian Improv Games National Festivals, for 2011 and 2013. It's so neat to think that hundreds of students from across Canada have a piece of my art in their dresser drawer.

A couple times now, once in Toronto and once in Montreal, I saw somebody walking down the street in one of my designs. The world is so wonderfully tiny.

Jack'o'lanterns & Phot'o'booths

It had been years since I had the chance to celebrate, or even acknowledge Halloween. During the University years I was too busy making art to make a costume and last year I was in France, where no could understand the allure of dressing up and embracing the dark side for a day. So, naturally this year I was enthusiastic when Mark Meer (a Halloween expert no doubt) asked me if I would do some speciality pumpkin carving for his live late night talk show, Oh Susanna. I said yes, but first I needed a costume!

As per usual I have been busy working on various commissions and on some pieces for my own art practice, so budgeting time for making a costume was tricky. However it only took me about 45 seconds to think of this idea, as it is always on my brain anyway and justa few hours to make it.

Before going to Oh Susanna I practiced carving the show’s logo into a pumpkin and realized that drawing skills and pumpkin carving skills are not the same thing, especially if you took a five year hiatus from Halloween. I was nervous, though I’ve become used to making art on the stop with a full audience watching (check out previous posts here and here about Improv Art) and the show’s cast and audience are as kind as they come. “Susanna” (Mark hosts the show in a drag persona) also gave a drawing I did of Susanna in my Friends as Beast and Creeps series away to an audience member.

Without a doubt my highlight of evening was during intermission when an audience member approached me while I was still carving on stage. She said she had heard of "this girl" who knew everything about photobooths in Edmonton and was wondering, (based only on my costume) if I was her. It felt amazing to be recognized not by my name or face, but purely by my hobby. That means something, right?

All in all, it was a two-thumbs-up evening.

Photo credits: Top photo by Brad Fischer. Carving on stage by Theresa Wynn and the two pumpkins by me.

Back from the Chicago Improv Festival!

I’ve just returned from Chicago where I was making Improv Art at the 13th Annual Chicago Improv Festival (CIF), the largest improv festival in the world. The festival was spread out over multiple venues in the city; Second City, IO, Annoyance Theatre, The Playground, Comedy Sportz... and others. There were hundreds of acts from all over the world, though unfortunately the festival was less international than originally anticipated because the European groups were unable to fly in because the Icelandic volcanic residue. The biggest highlight for me was CIF’s Award’s Night where they gave a best Ensemble of the Year award to The Improvised Shakespeare Company, Best Improviser to Susan Messing and three Lifetime Achievement awards to the late Severn Darden, Dick Schaal and to Harold Ramis. It was at Second City’s intimate ETC stage and the tone of the evening was uplifting and inspiring. It was very exciting and humbling to be around many of the field’s most talented individuals. I may be writing an article for improvisation.ca about the evening’s events and will post a link here if I do.

From an improv art perspective, the festival was a challenge for me because I had to carry my materials with me from venue to venue, usually doing three shows a night and sometimes with only minutes to set-up. (Usually at a festival I have a little studio on stage, where I sit comfortably for the whole time and have a convenient area in the lobby to display and sell my works.) The challenge ended up paying off because I got to meet tons of people that way and got to work in some great venues. After this experience I feel like I could make improv art under any conditions. In an Icelandic volcano? Probably.

I’ve been to a lot of Canadian Improv Festivals (spectating, performing, or art-making) and I’d like to think that I know a good percentage of Canadian improvisers, and that if I don’t, that it’s just a matter of time until our paths’ cross. Going to a Canadian festival is like going to my family reunion, if my entire extended family were comedians. CIF was the first American festival I’ve been to and though it still very much felt like a family reunion, it felt like someone else’s family. This may sound like a silly observation but it was crazy to meet that many improvisers at that level that I’d never met before. Once I got over my shyness I made some great friends from companies all over the states and Mexico, and I’m looking forward to my next American festival which will be that much less daunting.

The photo above is of my make shift studio at Comedy Sportz, it was taken by Jerry Schulman.

Improv Art at 10th Anniversary of ViiF

I was in Vancouver from Sept. 29 to Oct.3 for the Vancouver International Improv Festival, hosted by Instant Theatre (a.k.a. Alistair Cook). Alistair invited me to the festival to make and sell improv art and also allowed me to sell Go Eat Some Poison merchandise. The art making was a little trickier this time than in Edmonton because I needed to bring all my supplies with me. Planning and improv aren't best friends. However I was able to take twice as much time to make the art during the shows and so overall I was much happier with the quality of my work.

I also designed the ViiF t-shirts, which I will post photos of later with some other recent t-shirt designs. The first photo here is from the first day of the festival, before the board filled-up and it was taken by Alistair. The second photo was taken later in the festival once my studio space had become messy, it was taken by Stefana Fratila.

Edmonton’s Improvaganza, yes it is an improvisational extravaganza.

Kevin Gillese, artistic director of Rapid Fire Theatre invited me to come up with a visual aspect to Edmonton’s Improvaganza this year. I came up with what was so cleverly coined “improv art”. This meant that I had a little studio on stage and was working away during the Theatresports scenes. The work was inspired by both audience suggestions and the content of the scenes themselves. Afterwards the work was hung in the lobby for the viewing and purchasing pleasures of the audience and performers. It was a great experience and I thought of lots of ways to improve upon the structure for future festivals. Check out the website for photos of the art pieces!

Photo by George Basil of Magnet Theater's group Four Track.