Posters for musicals: Hamilton

You've probably heard a lot about the musical Hamilton and seen this cool poster and logo around.

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The official Hamilton musical poster

This poster was a project by SpotCo, a firm that has designed posters for many, many shows.

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They're a pretty big deal.

So, what went behind the designing of the Hamilton poster? In a recent interview with Variety, Drew Hodges, the founder of SpotCo, said they always believed Hamilton was loved by people of all ages, so "there was not a real goal to portray the show as this incredibly cutting-edge young thing, even though it is, in many ways." They wanted the design to be classic and long-lasting. Hodges feels the metallic gold is a timeless feature to the poster -- it fits for both pop culture now and historical 1776.

More importantly, through a Broadway musical poster, Hodges says you're attempting to convey how it will feel to attend the show. The poster isn't meant to show people what happens in the show; it's "making an emotional promise," Hodges says.

Hodges said that the firm created nearly 30 designs for this musical over two months. Here are a few of their favorites that just weren't quite the right fit:

1.

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 This poster, featuring a quill pen, would have "animated really well," according to Hodges, but "it's just too 'Revolutionary War.'"

2.

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 Personally, I really like this design. I don't think it's quite fit to be the final design for the Hamilton poster, but it's interesting and fun to look at. But as Hodges said, "It's cool, but ... It looks like a 'rock and roll Hamilton.'" And he felt that would have limited the musical to the specific genre.

3.

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 I didn't like this poster at first glance, but I've warmed up to it. I like the emotion conveyed through the pose of the person in black-and-white, and I like the bold attitude of the spray-paint and handwriting. Ultimately, this one didn't make the cut because "the handwriting is too modern. Again, it's pushing too hard to do 'rock and roll Hamilton,'" said Hodges.

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The team liked this poster a lot -- the design concept is very cool. But as Hodges said, "We started with a wide group of options and drilled down, down, down."

 5.

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I can't say I love this design -- Hodges said this "was a good one, I just don't think it's a good graphic, in the end." The main attraction is the text. The words flow well down to the point of Hamilton and they're very catchy. They're just a little too hard to read on this design, and the overlapping aspect feels a little un-put-together, even though it was intended.

6.

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What I really like about this art is how many picture and symbols are hidden in the ink and the white space. You can spend a lot of time looking at this one. The thing about this poster was that "this wasn't it, and the one we used really was," Hodges said. It just wasn't quite right for the musical.

This site had great information on several posters that were in the running to advertise and represent Hamilton.

There's also a book, On Broadway: From Rent to Revolution, a portfolio of the works of Spotco. If you're interested in the behind-the-scenes creative process behind classic and awesome Broadway posters, you should probably check this out.

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