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Beowulf: An Epic Panto artwork designed by Alex Jackson, King’s Head Theatre Junior Associate

9 November 2021


Alex Jackson first worked with the King’s Head as a Trainee Resident Director in 2018-19 as Assistant Director and Producer on several projects while being mentored by the staff team at the theatre. And he's known Charles Court Opera for just as long! Alex worked an Assistant Director while at the King’s Head on the panto that year, Buttons: A Cinderella story; directed in the round with a fun, vibrant style. Already a big panto fan, this really ignited a passion in him for small scale, creative pantos that can push the boundaries larger productions are restrained by. 

But Alex’s creative skills don’t stop there - oh, no.  Now a Junior Associate of the venue, Alex is a master of many talents - a Pantomime extraordinaire and Graphic Design whizz, (what he calls his ‘muggle job’).

Beowulf: An Epic Panto is on sale now, and you can see Alex’s artwork across our website, social media and in print at our venue. 

 
 
Enter stage left - Beowulf: An Epic Panto

We got in touch with Alex Jackson because, who else would be better placed to create the artwork for Beowulf: An Epic Panto?

We asked Alex what the process was, designing the artwork for King’s Head Theatre and Charles Court Opera’s one of a kind, boutique, Panto.

  1. Initially the King’s Head gave me a brief about the show and the feel they’d like to get from the poster. I did some research about other similar posters which were out there already. I always try to create something unique, so getting a sense of what’s already been done is essential.
  2. Once I’d put together a mood board for the artwork, I began a first draft of the background and title art. After a couple of revisions we ended up with pretty much the title artwork you can see on the poster now with bold letters which look as if they’ve been carved from some precious stone.
  3. I had some fantastic images by Nick Rutter, so we added some snow to make it feel a bit more christmassy, and then the photoshoot images came through. Nick’s images captured the three characters you can see on the poster now - each of those images were an individual photo, so I cut them out and spliced them together. Then I blended the results together with the other two images and produced the image you see now.
  4. The last part of the artwork to come together was the snowy trees in the background. Each of these are individual images cut together and given a slight sense of curving inwards which helps towards the fantasy and christmassy feel we wanted the artwork to convey.
  5. Once the artwork was signed off, I exported it at lots of different sizes and shapes rearranging the layout as needed, so that it can be shared across multiple channels like the King’s Head website, Facebook, Instagram etc. as well as some print exports that you’ll see it out and about in Islington - most prominently in the King’s Head pub window!

 

And there's so much more..

Primarily, Alex is a director with a passion for theatre that is brave, bold, imaginative, and fun with entertainment at its heart. Alex is Co-Founder and Festival Director of Exeter Fringe Festival, and co-creator of new musical theatre podcast All That Scratch recorded live at The Other Palace. Alex has a breadth of experience working across musical theatre, comedies, queer work and other plays (you can find out more about his directing work here).


"In a fun link to this project, I'm a big advocate for pantomime as a genre. I’ve previously judged for the Great British Pantomime Awards, and I write my own pantomime scripts which are available to licence for amateur theatre groups, schools, and youth theatres. I’ve also been known to play dame on occasion, which is always a fantastic opportunity to have fun - if a lot of work!"