How a Dinosaur Tail Saved the Day
Behind the scenes of Theatre Calgary's 2026/27 season campaign
Sometimes the solution to a creative problem is hiding in the last place you'd think to look.
In this case, it was a dinosaur.
But let's back up.
The Brief: A Theatre Season Without a Cast
I teamed up with Ebb + Flow Creative to dream up six poster images for Theatre Calgary's 2026/27 season.
The catch? We had to create the entire campaign a year before the shows opened and before the cast was even in place.
So, no actors to photograph. No faces to build the campaign around. Just the productions, a whole lot of imagination, and the challenge of creating a visual identity that could carry an entire season.
We pitched the idea of splitting the campaign into two phases.
First, we'd create playful, conceptual collage images that captured the spirit of each production. Then, once the casts were announced, we'd photograph the actors and bring them into the campaign.
Basically: tell the story first, then introduce the people who would be telling it.
Simple enough.
Until I had to make the Audrey II monster plant.
The Unexpected Detour
For Little Shop of Horrors, I needed Audrey II's vines to twist and snake around the typography in a very specific way.
I knew the shape and movement I wanted. The problem was finding it.
Normally, I'd use whatever tools best suited the job, including AI when it made sense. But this campaign came with a unique client request: no AI. which meant I was back to hunting through stock libraries.
And let me tell you, there were a million monster plants.
They were also... spectacularly cheesy.
Not the good kind of cheesy.
I tried making custom Photoshop brushes… Worse.
Then, somewhere in the middle of my increasingly desperate search, I stumbled upon a collection of dinosaur tails.
Dinosaur tails!?
And they had the perfect shape and movement.
The long, curving forms were exactly what I needed for Audrey II's twisting vines. So I took those tails, warped them, hand-painted over them, and spent a very satisfying amount of time colour matching and transforming them into something entirely different.
A dinosaur became a monster plant.
And, somehow, it worked.
It's one of my favourite parts of the project because no one looking at the final poster would ever guess they're admiring a carefully disguised dinosaur.
Which is perhaps the nicest thing you can say about a dinosaur.
Bringing the Cast to Life
Months later, once the cast was set, it was time to bring the photography campaign to life.
We zigzagged between Stratford, Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary over four shoot days, photographing the actors who would become part of the season's visual world.
After I photographed each actor, another team member captured video and social content. By the end of production, Theatre Calgary had an entire library of assets ready to support the season, from posters to reels to behind-the-scenes moments..
The campaign needed to feel cohesive, even as we introduced a whole new set of faces.
And that's one of the things I love about this kind of work: building an image that starts as an idea and gradually becomes something much more tangible.
The Result
The final campaign gave Theatre Calgary a visual identity for the season long before audiences knew who would be standing on the stage.
We delivered a cohesive campaign across six productions, with conceptual imagery, actor photography, and a broader library of assets to support the season's marketing.
And the cherry on top?
We won Silver at the Graphis Poster Awards!