Expressing Visual Design Ideas
- Kieran Burgess
- Sep 29
- 5 min read
This free resource is one of a series of units, guidebooks and lesson plans for teachers of Theatre. Although written with the DP Theatre teacher and student in mind, it can be adapted for other ages and curricula quite easily. Resources are adaptable and can be shared with colleagues, but please do not remove the credit to Kieran Burgess and this website. A condensed version of this unit plan was adapted by ISTA and is available on the IB Exchange platform, and the original extended unit is available below.
Overview
One of the four perspectives of the DP Theatre course is that of designer. However it is of limited use to the student to develop design and technical skills, if they lack the ability to communicate their design ideas to others. Criterion B of the internally assessed Production Proposal requires students to explain their design ideas visually. Missing out the visualisation, or sharing unclear visuals, will impact the marks awarded. This mini-unit introduces students to an awareness of which production elements can be expressed visually, which formats work best, and some advice for producing clear images.
Teacher materials included in this set:
Teacher Notes: Unit Instructions
Presentation: Expressing Visual Design Ideas
Handout 1: Ladder of Feedback template
If these free resources have saved you some time and you want to show a gesture of thanks, I'd be so grateful for any small amount you wish to give!
Rationale
One of the four perspectives of the DP Theatre course is that of designer. However it is of limited use to the student to develop design and technical skills, if they lack the ability to communicate their design ideas to others. Criterion B of the internally assessed Production Proposal requires students to explain their design ideas visually. Missing out the visualisation, or sharing unclear visuals, will impact the marks awarded. This unit of 4+ lessons introduces students to an awareness of which production elements can be expressed visually, which formats work best, and some advice for producing clear images. Students (and sometimes teachers!) can possess a belief that they ‘cannot draw/paint’ and therefore shy away from expressing their design ideas visually. However this is a crucial part of being a theatre-maker in any role, and this unit will show that even the 'worst' artists can still communicate clearly with quality visuals.
Students will develop...
Knowledge:
Methods for visualising exploratory ideas
Methods for visualising final staging decisions
Some tools and/or processes available for creating visuals
Skills:
Identifying production and design elements used and be able to communicate these visually
Responding visually to a stimulus
Scale drawing
Creating exploratory visuals
Creating final staging visuals
Ladder of Feedback - peer feedback protocol
Conceptual Understanding:
“A picture tells a thousand words”
Communicating ideas-in-formation is as valuable as communicating final decisions
Annotations as clarity vs annotations as explanations
Key tasks
The Presentation slides in this pack contain detailed teacher notes that will assist in explaining, questioning and side-coaching. There are many opportunities to expand this introduction unit into a full-blown unit, for example through choice of text, time to research and analyse, to experiment practically with design elements and design choices, or to develop further skills in some of the areas introduced. Key tasks included are:
Research task - exploratory visuals
Create exploratory visuals - given play text
Watch live theatre and evaluate through annotated final staging visuals
Peer evaluation using the Ladder of Feedback model
Scaled drawing from textual description of a set
Communicate final design choices for a given play text
Reflect on own learning
Key assessment
As always, a strong DP Theatre course relies on ongoing teacher observation and discussion, using assessment for learning and dynamic replanning. Whilst there is no formal assessment included in the lesson slides, there are a number of obvious points at which teachers could formalise assessment, including for markbook purposes, and these are signposted in the slide notes. For example,
Assessing the exploratory visuals using criterion B of the Production Proposal as a formative event, giving feedback that helps students reach higher markbands with future submissions.
Assessing the visual evaluation of a moment of live theatre seen using criterion B of the Production Proposal as a formative event, giving feedback that helps students reach higher markbands with future submissions.
Assessing the visual design ideas for a staged play text using criterion B of the Production Proposal as a ‘summative’ event. Feedback using the language of the subject guide helps students reach higher markbands with their future ‘real’ submissions.
Links to the Theatre guide
Staging Play Texts syllabus area
Production Proposal task
Perspective of designer
Stages of Inquire, develop and evaluate from the Theatre making process
You could optionally integrate with a theatre theorist and/or world theatre tradition to align design elements with a particular style. For example, using Equus by Peter Shaffer alongside a guided inquiry of Zeami Motokiyo could lead to a staging of the play which incorporates architecture and design elements of Noh Theatre.
Links beyond the subject
TOK: visuals are required in this task to share knowledge. Are some methods and tools more important than others?
TOK: Why does language hold a higher status in holding and communicating knowledge, compared with other methods of expression?
TOK: Must good art be planned?
CAS: taking introductory drawing or painting classes to develop confidence with creating visuals.
DP Design: Learning how to use CAD software accurately; creating and working with scale models and prototyping.
DP Visual Arts: Sketchbooking and journaling idea formation; paint and sketch technique; clothes design.
DP Film: Film-making techniques including shooting, editing, live mixing, colour-grading.
Further potential development
Some optional extension possibilities are signposted in the notes on the accompanying slides. Examples of potential further development of this unit include:
Practical experimentation with lighting angles, colours and intensities for the setting of atmospheres.
Live theatre visits (or accessing recorded live theatre) to provide the stimulus for production element discussion and evaluation.
Staging of a play text, with each student taking ownership for designing one moment/scene or one element each.
Scale model making, with white card (shapes and placement only) or full detail (colour and texture, indicating atmosphere).
The set is provided as a view-only Google Folder of Docs and Slides. Please download or make your own copy of any files you wish to edit. Do not 'Request Access' to the Google files as this will be ignored. Please feel free to adapt or add to these files, but please retain the credit to Kieran Burgess and this website. Please do get in touch if there are any broken links.
If these free resources have saved you some time and you want to show a gesture of thanks, I'd be so grateful for any small amount you wish to give!
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