Gemini has been a proud print sponsor to the Brighton Fringe for the third year running in 2016. Being the official print sponsor enables Gemini to interact with the local community and to give something back to help the growth of performing Arts in our City. The Brighton Fringe have been at the forefront of championing Arts and performance in our area for a number of years and aside from the many incredible acts on view, the benefit of the Festival to our city’s economy is fantastic, with hundreds of thousands of visitors in May and June.
Both the Family guide and Show guide are sponsored and printed by Gemini acting as ‘Print Partner’ to the Fringe. By also offering subsidised print fees to all venue holders and participants this means the sheer volume of printed marketing is almost doubled for each act/venue due to the lower price bracket. In addition Gemini run a number of free Print & Design workshops at various venues in the City throughout the year to help participants plan their advertising and marketing.
Gemini also sponsor the ‘Best Design for Print’ award with two prizes on offer. First prize - £500 and second prize £150 of vouchers for print with social media & publicity exposure.
The Fringe partnership goes way beyond commercial agreements and we act as a willing and engaged partner in every aspect of the festival. Our staff attended numerous events over the five weeks and our clients are now eager to sample one of Europe’s foremost festivals. To be honest, I couldn’t imagine life without ‘The Fringe’ as the planning and preparation is a 12 month cycle of amazing commitment that is hugely enjoyable. We look forward to working with Julian and the whole fantastic team for many years to come.’
Why the Print Design Award matters by Tommy The Queer Historian
My debut show, Homophobe, started out as a simple piece of theatre with the goal of looking homophobia square in the eyes and trying to work out if people can change their homophobic viewpoints.
The piece grew into the monster of the show that I performed on the 4th and 5th of June as part of Brighton Fringe. The show ended up offering a much deeper look into one man’s journey (my own!) of homophobia I faced as a teen, interspersed with performance, magic and cabaret. The first ever showing of Homophobe was well received by the audience and arts industry.
To win the award for Best Design for Print means the world to me. It was important for us to show that words, no matter how small, have results and the consequences of homophobia can be brutal. We wanted to have a poster that would catch people’s eyes but also show the deeper side of the project.
I couldn’t have done this without the amazing work from my team. From my producer, Emily, for supporting my decision on a hard-hitting poster to my film director, Stephen, for offering his amazing eye on the poster. From My Name is Ad for the graphic design, Matt Oliver our photographer, to Roz Gomersall for the amazing make-up.
Now the pressure is on for next year’s Brighton Fringe but we already have some exciting plans for a show called ‘3,597’. Watch this space!
