This production of Next to Normal is an adaptation that reimagines the Tony Award-winning musical through a South Asian lens, adding cultural and religious nuances to its exploration of mental health, grief, and family.
For this production, I was brought on as the designer to create the show poster and supporting assets, including brochures, social media posts, and promotional materials. My design approach aimed to visually reflect this unique interpretation, capturing both the raw intensity of the show and its deeply personal, intimate storytelling.
I approached this design by gathering words that felt central to Next to Normal: shadows, grief, perception, stigma, family. I kept coming back to the idea of things feeling both functional and broken at the same time. I shaped the doorway like a pill bottle, thinking about medication as both an entry and an escape, and used an Indian jaali pattern to connect to the South Asian context.
Diyas came in as a small way to suggest light, but always surrounded by darkness. The shadow in the corner felt necessary, like the abyss you can’t quite ignore. More than anything, I was trying to hold all these contrasts at once, knowing the design wouldn’t perfectly solve them, but could at least sit in the middle of that tension.
