tryde & tested.

Tryde & Tested was my first baby when I began producing events in Edinburgh. As a singer, I recognised that there were no shows dedicated exclusively to live vocals, so I decided to fill the gap in the market by creating my own. T&T was all about getting to know the performers through their craft: each month we would have a different theme, and within that theme would be three prompts that would encourage performers to talk about specific topics, issues or anecdotes that they may have, and then they would sing a song inspired by this. We also raised money for charity each month, trying to tie in the charity with the theme we were running with, and ended up raising thousands of pounds over the two year stint of the show. It was a lot of fun, and remains one of my proudest achievements from that period.

When it comes to the graphic design, the main effort each month came from the photoshoots that we organised to go alongside each theme. You can see more about these in the Photoshoots tab above. We wanted to create visually appealing shoots that would grab people’s attentions in and of themselves; indeed, we would get lots of messages on the days that we began posting publicity for it from people saying how excited they were to see what this month’s theme would be and what the photoshoot would look like. Honestly, this was as fun as putting the show together itself.

Then, regarding brand identity and design, we came up with a logo that was classy and easily identifiable, inspired by classic cabaret shows and musical theatre symbolism. We also created a signature for my persona Alicia Tryde, and for a long time we kept a lot of the text, imagery and formatting consistent in order for people to easily recognise what was being publicised. Towards the end of the show’s lifespan, we began branching out into other formats, such as parodying film posters or Playbills, as the format was at that point so recognisable that we weren’t worried about people not being aware of what was being advertised. This allowed us a little more creative freedom after having been restrained by our own standards for over a year and a half.

All in all, this show meant a lot to me during my time in Edinburgh, and I hope the love and passion I had for it comes through here. Hope you enjoy x