This gallery shows the complete process of marketing for concerts of the full-scale male chorus piece "Naked Man," words by Philip Littell, music by Robert Seeley. The music and words were taken from interviews by the writer and composer with members of the gay community in San Francisco in 1996, and the title refers to the emotionally "naked" stories of the lives of gay men at that time. The concert featured chamber orchestra and two combined choruses.
The marketing began a full six months before the concerts, and included logo design, weekly "teaser" photographic ads featuring excerpts from "Naked Man" using members of the chorus as models. I led the design team, was the photographer, and created the performance event logo. We also made t-shirts based on the logo and design, which were worn by the singers during the performance.
It was decided that the singers would wear custom-designed t-shirts for the concert performances, instead of formal tuxedos or informal chorus polo shirts (with the chorus logos on them, as commonly worn for less formal concerts). Not only would custom event t-shirts provide a unified look for the special event nature of the concerts, and tie directly into the marketing theme, but they would be mementoes for the singers to keep. (More than one singer bought multiple shirts.)
On the front panel of the t-shirts, I placed the Naked Man logo, with no type, just the image. On the back panel of the t-shirts, I placed the full logo, along with the logos of the two choruses who combined to perform these special concerts: Perfect Harmony Men's Chorus, of Madison WI, and City of Festivals Men's Chorus, of Milwaukee WI.
Postscript: In 2016, at the 2016 GALA Festival in Denver, an event that every four years brings together hundreds of LGBT choruses to sing for each other, there was a full performance of "Naked Man" with full orchestra, led by Dr. Stan Hill, the original commissioner of the work when he was the Director of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. This was the 20th Anniversary performance of "Naked Man," and all singers present who had performed the work before were invited to be part of the anniversary chorus. There were 300 hundred singers onstage! Dotted throughout each vocal section were men wearing the blue t-shirts that I had designed—which was for me a real honor as well as a real thrill.