CLIENT – Beautiful Joe

CLIENT – Beautiful Joe (by Jennifer Radford)

The Brief: Beautiful Joe is an original play by Canadian Playwright Michael O’Brien, adapted from the beloved 1893 novel by Margaret Marshall Saunders, which contributed to worldwide awareness of animal cruelty. 

The real Beautiful Joe was an abused mutt who was rescued by a kind family in Meaford Ontario. Margaret Marshall Saunders was so touched by Joe’s story that she wrote a novel-length, fictionalized, autobiographical version of it, entitled Beautiful Joe.  Michael O’Brien was commissioned by the Beautiful Joe Heritage Society to create a play in celebration of Joe’s legacy.

For Beautiful Joe, I wanted to focus on the heartwarming elements in the face of Joe’s difficult early life. I hunted down a long-out-of-print vintage copy of the Saunders novel with a particularly appealing illustration of Joe on the cover, scanned and repaired the image, and used it as the focal image for the production.

I chose the ombre blue-green background to evoke summer days full of hope and promise. Strong red and black text with a slightly vintage vibe brings the design together.