The promotional posters for the Department of Theatre and Dance events at Fredonia continue to earn design awards for their creator.
Raymond Bonilla, an adjunct instructor in the Department of Visual Arts and New Media and Fredonia alumnus, recently added several more prestigious awards to the list of those he has garnered for posters he has designed for the theatre department’s Walter Gloor Mainstage Series.
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Bonilla received an Award of Excellence from the Communication Arts Illustration Annual Competition for three different posters he created for 2013-14 season: “Moon Over Buffalo,” “The Shape of Things” and “RENT.”
Founded 1959, Communication Arts is considered a “premier source” of inspiration for graphic designers, art directors, design firms, corporate design departments, advertising agencies, interactive designers, illustrators and photographers. It publishes a leading trade journal for visual communications and the largest creative magazine in the world.
The poster design for “The Shape of Things” also received an Award of Excellence at the Society of Illustrators of New York and an honorable mention from the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles.
The poster design for “Moon Over Buffalo” also earned a Bronze Award from the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles.
Founded in 1901, the New York Society of Illustrator’s mission is to promote the art of illustration. Its annual exhibition is the premier showcase for illustrators and animators from around the world. Thousands of entries are considered by a jury of professionals, which includes renowned illustrators, art directors and designers.
The Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles was founded in 1953 and has become the major professional art entity on the west coast. Its annual Illustration West competition and exhibition highlights the year’s best illustration from around the world.
Tom Loughlin, chairman of the Department of Theatre and Dance, said this collaboration with the Department of Visual Arts and New Media has been very successful.
“It’s been a great source of pride and achievement for me to see Ray’s success,” Loughlin said. “He was one of the original students in the Media Arts program when it started in 1999, and collaborating with him on these nationally award-winning posters has been a richly rewarding experience.”
Bonilla graduated from Fredonia in 2005 with a degree in new media and illustration. He continued his studies at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco where he completed his Masters of Fine Art in 2009.
He has been designing posters for Walter Gloor Mainstage Series events since 2011 and has served as an adjunct professor teaching Life Drawing and Painting for the Department of Visual Arts and New Media since 2009.
Bonilla explained his first step in creating a poster is to read through the script in its entirety.
“I find that the script really helps me understand the play’s ‘feeling’ and allows me to discuss the poster’s direction in a much more specific fashion,” Bonilla said. “I feel that my job as an illustrator is not only to make an aesthetically pleasing image but to effectively capture a play’s multiple themes and condense them into a powerful single image.”
Once he has this image in mind, Bonilla heads into the studio to bring it to life.
“In terms of the painting, I start with a line drawing using photographs I took of models and my approved sketch as a reference to plot out my compositional and shadow shapes,” Bonilla said. “After this, I work from large to small, background to foreground, until I achieve a finish that is appropriate for the piece.”
In addition to the above awards, Bonilla received a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators of New York and a Gold Award from the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles for his design created for 2012-13 Mainstage production of “The Piano Lesson.”
Three other poster designs he created for the 2012-13 season earned honors from the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles. “The Diary of Anne Frank” received a Gold Award, “Fredonia Dance Ensemble” received an Award of Excellence and “Stop the World – I Want to Get Off” received honorable mention.
In 2011-2012, he earned an honorable mention from the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles his poster design for the Mainstage production of “High Plains Fandango.”
