Burlesque Design Sheets

Being that I am currently sick of the projects that I'm working on, I've decided to take a short break from them and produce an identity in a day. A lot of people are doing briefs like this around me and I think it's a really good idea, practicing quick turn over and the like. I've had a couple of ideas for identities bouncing around in my head for a while. I wanted to go a little bit out there and do some ones for people with unusual jobs just for a bit of fun really. The original idea was to create an identity for a pole dancer, but then I figured that burlesque dancing is way classier and could be something created to a very high standard and look very expensive.

Being that I don't known any burlesque dancers, I decided to create one and found a very hand 'burlesque name generator' on the internet. Granted, some of the ones it came up with were really rubbish, but it spewed out some really classy sounding names. The one i went for was Vivienne Du Bois. It has a very high class sort of feel to it, which is what I imagine when I think of burlesque.


My mind map was a little bigger than expected when I started to think about all the things that I associate with burlesque. Certainly gave me an excuse to watch Moulin Rouge.


Just a couple of sketches for ideas of things to do with burlesque. The things that spring to mind for me are corset lacing and ostrich feathers, and of course, giant martini glasses. Dita Von Teese as well. At the moment, I am quite liking the idea of feathers. Fan dancing is one of the most prominent things that spring to mind when I think of burlesque, and I think it's a big part of it.


I did a few business card sized (roughly) rectangles and tried applying some images to the format. As of right now, I am rather liking the idea of the name in lights, or just initials, or feather patterns. I can't draw feathers but please, don't hold that against me. I had another idea that involved a pattern like a can can dancer's skirt and two holes for the fingers to push through and become the legs, but this is definitely more suited to a can can dancer or show girl rather than a burlesque dancer. Still though, I think it could be quite a nifty little idea.


I didn't really spend a lot of time on paper for this short brief as I figured I could get more development work done and get through ideas quicker if I jump onto Illustrator and start trying and testing things out.