Visual Campaign for “High School Musical on Stage!”
I didn't expect High School Musical to become part of my professional life, but in 2021 it did.
I worked on the visual campaign for the Estonian Youth Musical Theatre production of Disney's High School Musical on Stage!.
At the time, Walgus was renting a rather large two-floor office in Tallinn, partly because I had stubbornly decided that we needed one. My colleagues had their doubts. For this shoot, at least, we used every bit of it: the top floor became the costume and make-up department, while the ground floor was transformed into a photo studio.
My role focused on turning the resulting photographs into the campaign visuals, including the final posters and large-format print materials, and managing the production process together with the Walgus team.
How the Campaign Began
The project actually started before we had photographed any of the cast. I was managing the project at Walgus, with my assistant designer Sten also involved in the early stages. In April 2020, we received the official Disney brand kit and started adapting it into web and roll-up banners for the Estonian production.
Bringing the Characters to Life
The next step was to create our own visual material. In January 2021, we turned the Walgus office into a photo studio, complete with a small make-up and hair department, and photographed the musical cast there.
The original film that inspired the stage production and its visual identity.
The cast couldn’t simply be photographed however we wanted: the characters and their styling needed to remain recognisable as their counterparts from the original American High School Musical: On Stage! production from 15 years before.
My colleague Reio took the photos, while I edited the images afterwards and selected the ones that would eventually become the character portraits, poster and other campaign materials.
From Start to Finish
The project became a nice example of how many different parts of a campaign we could handle within Walgus: full studio setup, photography, compositing, graphic design, print production. We liked the finished result enough that we made a short behind-the-scenes video about the process.
Since I was managing the project, I agreed to talk about it on camera. Watching it now also confirms something I’ve suspected for a long time: I’m much more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it.
Ready for Opening Night
The final materials were used across posters, web promotion and large-format outdoor advertising ahead of the 2021 performances in Türi Cultural Centre.
One of the coolest feelings as a designer: you’re just out shopping for groceries at Prisma in Tallinn and suddenly there’s a poster you designed on the advertising screen above you.
The Show That Had to Wait
The project also took an unexpected turn. The original 2021 performances were cancelled because of COVID restrictions, after the campaign had already been produced and tickets sold. Instead of ending there, the musical was postponed until the following year.
That meant returning to the project in 2022. Some members of the cast had changed in the meantime, so we organised another photoshoot and I updated the campaign with new photographs and designs. It was an unusual situation – essentially bringing the same campaign back to life a year later, while making it feel current again.
Client: Estonian Youth Musical Theatre
Years: 2020–2022
Role: Design, project management, photo editing and production coordination
Photography and video: Reio Raudheiding, Madli Kärt Ollisaar
