Last updated on April 13th, 2023 at 06:40 pm

Over the years, there have been countless men and women who have been so taken by the siren song of grease paint and lights. A great many of them serve their theatrical muse by using their talents to perform while others prefer to weave the stories and songs. Others, still, would rather work in the background creating the worlds where these tales come to life. And then, of course, there’s this one guy in Clearfield, Utah whose way of contributing to the stage is pretty one of a kind.

His name is Shelby Ferrin and he owns Drama Doodles, a studio that specializes in designing window cards for drama clubs and community playhouses.

The story of Drama Doodles, as Shelby tells it, began in his childhood living room. Having a drama teacher for a father meant that while most people decorated their living rooms with paintings and sculptures, theirs had posters from various Broadway shows on their walls. He waxes nostalgic, “I spent a lot of time growing up looking at them and marveling at the ones able to convey their shows’ themes and characters and plots in simple, graphical form.”

However, although Shelby loved the clever and beautiful poster designs, for the longest time his exposure to designing for the theater was limited to doodling play logos on the margins of his notebooks.

It was only years later that Shelby’s talent for designing window cards truly surfaced when his father asked for some help creating designs for upcoming productions. Shelby happily obliged his father and soon what had started out as a family favor grew into something more when people started coming to him for poster designs. The Special Education teacher explains, “Something I never dreamed of doing quickly became a nice second job. ”

And with this nice second job Shelby’s been “Making small town productions look Big Time!” Most of Drama Doodles’ clients are community playhouses and school drama clubs who don’t really have Broadway budgets. This means that Shelby offers his work at a fraction of what a full-time designer would charge. Also, Shelby says “Having experience acting in, and working on plays gives Shelby an edge over other would-be window card designers. He knows “that the cast and crew become more than just friends. Their worlds revolve around that show, and for 3 months at a time, they become family. A stock image just doesn’t do that justice.” Knowing that lets Shelby ensure his clients that any work that comes from Drama Doodles is made by someone who understands and loves the intricacies of the theater.

As if to prove how loyal he is as a disciple of the stage, Shelby’s worked on more than 130 posters since Drama Doodles debuted in 2005. He’s already captured the sort of “beautiful mornin’” that Curly and Laurey sing about in Oklahoma! as well as the spooky, foreboding feeling usually associated with the headless horseman in Washington Irving’s Sleepy Hollow.

Drama Doodles has also worked on posters for several Neil Simon plays, as well as for Broadway favorites like You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Seussical, and Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods, among many others.

One could say that one reason people keep going to Drama Doodles for posters is because Shelby tries to understand the director’s vision and communicate that through his illustrations. Last year, Shelby relates, he was able to do exactly that for a director who wanted to tell the story of Peter Pan as if a group of children wer playing make-believe, conjuring the story as they went along.

For the poster, Shelby drew a group of children playing in the park and hid symbols from the Peter Pan story in the poster. Once the director showed Shelby’s finished work to her cast, the concept suddenly jelled and the actors finally began to explore and embrace the idea. Shelby says, “I didn’t make a lot of money on that design, but I helped inform the creative process in a way that improved the experience for 25 young actors and several hundred audience members. That, to me, is artistic success.”

As with any poster-making outfit, the printer service should always be well-considered. After all, how would Drama Doodles “make small-town productions look big time” if their printed materials aren’t produced on high-quality paper? It’s a good thing, then, that the star of Drama Doodles discovered UPrinting.com.

He says, “UPrinting has been a dream come true for me as a freelance artist. Not only are their products a great deal, they are so easy to work with.

I can download a template, add my artwork, upload it, and send it to press in a matter of moments. If I have questions, they have staff available to help me 24 hours/day. That availability is a game changer for someone who does most of his creative work in the late evenings when local printers are closed.”

With Shelby Ferrin’s dedication to his craft and his keen eye for detail, it can be said that without a doubt, for Drama Doodles, the the final act is still a long time coming.

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