Concert preparations part two – 2 hours

This is the second part of the preparations for a concert I am taking part in with two singing friends.

I have mentioned our preparations for performing but the other crucial part of a concert is of course, an audience.  Not only does is enhance the whole experience for the performers, the more tickets sold the more money can go to the charity we are supporting.

It is a good sign that the venue is supporting the event when they ask for posters, flyers and ticket prices months before the concert, but it was a wake up call to me when I received such a request last week for our concert in September, and I admit to a slight feeling of panic.

So here was my next job – design a poster!  We also now had the name of the charity so it was a good time to start.

I am not an expert on this by any means, but it is something I have done many times for various events, so I have some idea of what is needed.  I am sure my posters will never win any prizes for design but they do provide basic necessary information:-

• Title of concert
• Performers
• Date
• Time
• Venue address
• Cost of tickets
• How to get the tickets
• Charity name, number and website

Discussion had already taken place with the other performers about the title of the concert. I asked for ideas from my fellow singers and they were very quick at getting back to me with some thoughts and suggestions, so the basic format came together pretty quickly.  However, desk top publishing is a great way to while away hours and hours of your time, moving things around, getting images just the right size etc., etc., so my claim of 2 hours for GoT is really very conservative, it was probably more like 3-4 hours.

It is important that the design is still reasonable (and legible) when enlarged or reduced as it will be used for A5 flyers, the front page of the concert programme, and possibly for A3 posters too depending on where the information may be displayed.  These days it also needs to be in a digital format that can be used in newsletters, Facebook posts etc..

Sometimes a design can look good on the screen but does not transfer well to print on a domestic printer or is cartridge heavy.   For this reason, I also have a print friendly version, perhaps without a background.  As we are not professional performers and are raising money for a charity, we are not keen to pay for professional printing.

While I was at my PC, I also took the opportunity to use a previous ticket template to create tickets for this concert.  I really do not want to be caught out a second time when they request tickets.

With some relief I sent the various versions of the poster to the church.  I was grateful that it all came back approved.  Another job done, back to the music!