Nickelodeon

on-camera Graphic Design can be funny

A mockumentary-style comedy about the inner workings of a middle school drama club.

Nickelodeon’s television show, Drama Club is a mockumentary-style comedy following a group of middle schoolers in a fictional small town in Minnesota as they shine a light on the inner workings of their school's overlooked drama club at Tookus Middle School where the football team is king and the drama club nerds are the outcasts. One can’t help but cheer on the eclectic groups of kids in the drama club.

We got a very exciting invitation to work as graphic designers on the new hit series from Nickelodeon, Drama Club. This was especially meaningful since we grew up on Nickelodeon. As graphic designers we worked with the Production Designer, Art Director, Prop Master and set dressers to create on-camera graphic design for the television show. On-camera graphic design helps propel the story forward by supporting the actors and often times is a design piece that is pivotal to the story and that the actors interact with. We designed everything from the school logo, hallway signs about student clubs, to sports banners, iPad apps, program guides, book covers, corporate logos, tickets and so much more.

Good enough for pre-teens

One of the unique challenges as designers on this project was to make designs that were good enough for middle school but not too good that it would be unrealistic. It was a fun challenge to see if we could put ourselves back in time when we were in middle school.

Designing for the camera

Sizing of type and design elements had to take into consideration that this was only being seen on camera so it had to be clear at a distance and at other times we could not include so much detail so as to distract the view from the focus of the scene. The designs had to work often times at a quick glance.

Bringing the story to life

It was a thrill each time to read the script and see a call out for a specific joke where graphic design was needed. Some of our favorites were the musical book cover, the playbills from past performances, and the headshot of Greg Gibbins that leads to a mistaken identity of a main character.

Thank you for all your work — everyone was blown away and we were constantly getting complimented on the graphic design. Random crew members kept asking if they can have a copy of a flyer or a poster!

-Art Director

The showrunners freaking love your designs! Thanks for everything!

-Prop Master

A VISUAL STORYTELLING STUDIO

Los Angeles, California