Two-color offset printed poster created for a play presented by the Children’s Theatre Company and Intermedia Arts.

Namdev worked at Intermedia Arts from January 2004–June 2005 as an intern and then as staff designer and this was the quickest “serious” project he did there. The staff of Intermedia Arts and The Children’s Theatre Company met at 4 pm on a Wednesday and discussed promoting an as-yet-untitled theater piece about the Whittier neighborhood in Minneapolis. To finish the promotions on time, the piece would have to be designed in a single day and approved shortly thereafter. Namdev and Kim spent the following morning driving around and photographing the neighborhood. It was a miserable rainy December morning in Minneapolis so we couldn’t get out of the car and no one was out on the streets so it felt dead. All in all, it was kind of disappointing.

Namdev brought the photos back to Intermedia Arts and began working on the design still not knowing the title. In a serendipitous turn of events the tagline he was sent was “The pople, the places and stories that lie beneath the surface.” which aligned perfectly with the photos that were at best a surface view of the neighborhood. The half-tone pattern that was used on the photos further accentuated this idea.

The play’s writer and director Rebecca Brown ended up liking the piece so much that she used some of the photography as backgrounds that were projected behind the performers. Unfortunately we have no documentation of this.

The poster design was also produced as a postcard which we actually like better because most of the type was able to be moved to the backside making for a cleaner composition.