The Addys
If you're a reader of my blog you're pretty sure in the knowledge of my love of books. Oh, who am I kidding, I'm obsessed with them! You know it, I know it, everyone is assured of this fever that grips me, especially workers at local bookstores. This blog is one of the many ways I express my love of the written word. But there are other ways! Oh yes, dear readers. Now, I'm not talking interpretive dance, which I would be awful at, but art, which I am good at. Some of you who've gotten to know me better through this lovely thing called the internet know that this blog is just my little side project, my little bit of fun, while what I really do is Graphic Design. After slogging through the University of Wisconsin-Madison and getting out with a BS in Art and a BA in Theatre, I realized that I didn't actually have any marketable skills, what with not knowing how to work a computer. Hence I went back to school at our wonderful technical college and now I have some wicked skills and some outlets for my bookishness. I don't always make my projects about books, it sometimes just happens, just like you just happen to breath. Books are in my blood and I need to express this, and what better way then through art.
As it turns out, my weird book obsession has paid off. Every year the design community gets together and has a big awards show, it's called the Addys, and it's the closest thing we've got to the Oscars, but sadly no Colin Firth. You submit your work and are judged. You are awarded either a Silver or a Gold medal, there is no 3rd best. There are three tiers to the competition, local, regional and national. The local is today! And I've WON! I've won five times and I am over the moon. The pieces are here before you, and yes, they all have a book theme, as I'm sure you've guessed. The piece above is about the wonders of reading and is a Public Service Announcement that would be targeted to entertainment magazines that would encourage parents to read to their kids versus letting the television do it for them. This would be the first in a series of books that were also made into famous movies... I think after The Wizard of Oz, it might be time to show a little love for Alice in Wonderland.
This piece here is a glamour spread for an annual report. Annual reports are sent out by a company to their investors to show how they've done in the previous fiscal year. There's charts and graphs and what have you. I chose to do mine on Penguin Publishing, surprise, surprise. I also got the comment from my teacher that he would never let me near any of his copies of Charles Dickens because of what I did to mine, aka, the little penguin on the page. But let me ease your fears, I did not deface a book that could have been read. I went to my local bookstore and searched through old penguin books, because it just HAD to be a penguin book. I found an old copy of David Copperfield that was barely held together any longer, the pages were falling out. But falling out pages was just what I needed! So rest assured, I took a book and gave it new life, I did not murder it!
What I am most proud of, though, is my series of Elizabeth Gaskell DVDs. My teacher is a huge movie fan, and a fan of the movies The Criterion Collection releases. For our final project, we had to choose three related movies and make DVD covers for all three, be it director based or theme based. The thing with The Criterion Collection is that they mainly do off beat or foreign films, in other words, something that is not the typical release. I chose the three awesome miniseries that the BBC has done of Elizabeth Gaskell's books, Wives and Daughters, North and South and Cranford, and not just because getting to rewatch them counted as homework, though that was quite nice, but because I hated these DVDs original packaging too. I wanted to harken back to the old style of Masterpiece Theatre posters that had the elegance of the time period as well as many little things that only those who've read the books or watched the miniseries would pick up on. Utilizing Illustrator, I did all the drawings myself in my trusty computer. For this cover, I have Cynthia, as played by the wonderful Keeley Hawes, the queen bee of the narrative... I mean at one time she's juggling four different suitors! The quote on the back says: "No come on, you can’t go trying to match her eyes like a draper." The remainder of the quote is that Cynthia is Roger's lodestone, hence, I have named this illustration, The Lodestone.
So there you go! A little look into how my mind works. I should say how my bookworm infested mind works. But all in all, it should be a fun night out! My friends also won awards and I have a nifty new dress, think Edwardian Downton meets just the slightest hint of flapper. Because a period-esque dress was a must.
