A Rose By Any Other Name

Designer Rich Nelson on his iconic Shakespeare posters

- Stefene Russell

IT STARTS TALKING back. It will tell you, ‘That’s the wrong color—don’t put that color on me!’ or ‘That’s the wrong font.’”

That artistic call-and-response, however, comes late in the process. When Rich Nelson, a senior designer for Kiku Obata & Co., first starts to work on his posters for Shakespeare Festival St. Louis—he’s done all 18—he doesn’t put anything on paper. He reads the play. He reads SparkNotes. He talks to the director. “I’m processing it on a conceptual level,” he says.