Symphony Orchestra Program Book Design

I have a genuine passion for creating artwork for Symphony Orchestras, so I was truly excited to dive into this major project. The program book in question spanned a hefty 140 pages, making it quite the undertaking.

I enjoy the process of getting into the heads of my clients, working closely to find the best solutions that align with their vision, cater to their patrons, and reflect my own creative input. We all share a common goal – to produce a beautifully designed program book that’s user-friendly.

Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra Program Book Design | 2021-2022 Season

Program Book Design for Symphony Orchestra
HHSO Program Book Cover and Program Pages Design

The design process started with a comprehensive set of ideas and requirements provided by a key member of the HHSO team, Julie. Julie offered invaluable insights and her vision for the theme of the program book.

We talked about program graphics and the season’s theme: “Celebrate: 40 years of the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra and 10 years of John Russel as Music Director.” Our plan was to keep the interwoven ribbons we’d used in the subscription brochure but change up the color scheme. HHSO wanted a touch of “formal” and “traditional” elegance with a classy color palette.

I presented three different cover drafts to Julie, and after several rounds of revisions and careful consideration of photos and fonts, we solidified the core color scheme, prominently featuring silver and black, with red ribbons consistently threading through the entire book.

We decided that the concert listings should feature a dark silver bleed margin to exude an attractive, festive, and sophisticated appearance that resonated with our discerning patrons. This choice was made to facilitate ease of flipping through the book while reviewing the concert programs, with other pages adopting white margins.

My workflow was structured in distinct blocks:

  1. Front and Back Cover design and approval
  2. Program Pages design
  3. Established templates in InDesign, employing master pages, type, and paragraph styles, and meticulously organizing headers and text.
  4. Ads design (including checking print-ready ads from some businesses while creating advertisements for others)
  5. History Article layout
  6. Maestro Article layout
  7. Several additional articles layout
  8. Compiling all elements and creating the content page
  9. Formatting and packaging the file for submission, ensuring it met the printer’s requirements with proper bleed and crop marks.
The Artist’s Page and About the Music Page layout
The special layout for an article from Maestro

Once the program was printed, I received a lovely thank-you note from Julie, which was the perfect ending to this creative journey. 💖

Thank you Note from Julie