Client:
Sterling Singers
Tool(s):
Photoshop
Role:
Designer, Freelance
The Brief
Sterling Singers, a recurring client, needed a concert poster for their 2025 Christmas season performance. The concert title was Christmas Rose. My first question was an honest one: what exactly is a Christmas rose? The client’s answer was simple and immediately visual: a red rose with snow.
The Challenge
A strong concept lives or dies on the hero image. My first instinct was a custom photoshoot, but a quick check of the local forecast ruled that out. No snow on the ground, none coming within the project window. That meant finding a stock photo specific enough to serve a very particular mood, not just any rose, and not just any snow.
The Approach
I narrowed the image search to two compositions: a rose rising up through snow or a rose resting on it. Once I found the right shot, a vibrant red rose lightly frosted, lying on snow with warm light behind it, the direction became clear. The image had a majestic, almost fairytale quality to it. That association pointed me straight toward the typography.
My usual go-to fonts didn’t fit. Futura was too geometric, Proxima Nova too modern. The rose lying in snow felt closer to something from Beauty and the Beast than a standard holiday event. That instinct led me to an elegant, fantasy-adjacent display font that matched the mood. For body copy I came back to Proxima Nova, using its weight range to handle hierarchy and keep white text legible against the photo.
Texture was added to the title treatment to reinforce the icy feel, and a QR code was included so concert-goers could find more information easily.
The Result
The final poster leaned into the romance of the image rather than the typical holiday red-and-green formula. The color story, multiple shades of red against the cool whites of the snow, gave it a warmth that stood out. Sterling Singers had a poster that felt as considered as the concert name itself.
