Street Stencil

So after hours of hard work creating the stencil in Illustrator so it would work on the Laser Cutter at school, I finally finished the street stencil for the project. I originally tried to do the street stencil with a thin mylar plastic but the Laser Cutter melted and warped the plastic in a way that ruined the design. I then used chip board which turned out amazingly well. The downside is when I went to test it, my chalk mixture obviously didn't work and it almost ruined the stencil. The next step would be to try a thin sheet of acrylic for the stencil but I have run out of time and finances. For now I'm going to have to leave it up to future research. This experience has shown me that creating stencils are difficult and costly. I got a quote from a company that specialized in creating stencils (http://www.stencilsonline.com/) and the estimate ranged from $100 to $200 for my stencil, way to expensive for up and coming bands to pay for one show. I also tried to cut the stencil myself with a razor blade and I found it impossible to do. Even the simplest parts of the design were extremely difficult to cut. Without access to a Laser Cutter like the one I have at school, the street stencil doesn't currently appear to be a viable way for up and coming bands to promote their show. Though my research shows that there are others who are doing it very successfully. Here are some photos of my stencil and experiment.

Final CD

This CD is what will be handed out to promote the show. It has the band names, their website, images for each group, the venue name and address, and the day, date, and time of the show. Along with having all this information, the CD also contains one song from each band.

Concert Poster Inspiration

After browsing through hundreds of concert posters for ideas and inspiration, these were a few that stood out to me. Mainly for their eye catching concepts and stencil like qualities. All the effort I put into designing the stencil really made me understand the amount of work that goes into these posters and how they are absolutely pieces of art. This research and work has given me a great appreciation and respect for the people who create these posters.

Street Stencil and CD Stamp

After getting the approval from my Graphic Design Expert Gerry Labadie from Labadie Produtions, I  completed the design for the solution of my study. A street stencil that will be used to promote shows visually and a CD stamp that will be used to create a free CD that will be handed out to promote the band's music, website, and upcoming concerts. Both forms of promotion are to be used to create Word of Mouth promotion for up and coming bands. I used the concert my band is playing as a way to gain first hand experience and to test the solution in the real world. The CD stamp with the ink pad and ink cost $70 ($40 for the stamp, $20 for the ink, and $10 for the pad) and the CD's cost 15 cents a piece. The amount of ink needed for the CD stamp is so small that the cost per CD is basically nothing. There was just the upfront cost which is very inexpensive compared to buying burned and printed CD's which cost 79 cents a CD plus shipping (discmakers.com) . The stencil was based off of the 1970's poster above. I'm still waiting for the CD's I ordered to show up so I can take a picture of an actual stamped CD but here are the graphics for the stencil and CD.

Stencil

CD Stamp

What the CD will look like

Images used to make Street Stencil