Don’t Wait, Collaborate!
On a quiet spring Friday, the family and I were enjoying the weather on our porch in Riverside. With excitement and pride, Evelyn implored we come and see what she made. “Look, I built downtown!” she proclaimed with joy. She had assembled blocks in her vision of the Downtown Jacksonville skyline. We are both fans of downtown.
Image Creation
Always excited by the chance to collaborate with Evelyn, I jumped on the opportunity to work with her. I quickly snapped a picture of her creation and brought the image into photoshop. The first step was making the image acceptable to be screen printed. Halftone dots made this possible. Next, I selected the blocks with the pen tool so that I could create my color separations.
With the two color image made, the final step was setting the type. I used a combination of Lobster, Eames, Gotham and hand rendered type. I have been on this kick of trying to use as many typefaces in my poster designs as it will allow. A limited color pallet and strong structure to the layout keeps this sort of treatment from getting out of control.
Printing
The color separations were printed at LDI on velum. The printer they use is not designed to lay down large amounts of opaque ink. This adds character to the process through ghosted images or parts of the images becoming distressed or not printed. The screens were then burned by the talented George Cornwell. Again, more character is added in the process. Ghosts of prints past can be seen in the image. Parts of a print by Overstreet Ducasse can be seen in the lower left corner of the print.
George is a indispensable resource to the arts and design community in Jacksonville. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to every project. George printed while I racked the prints. We pulled an edition of 16 with one printers proof.
The final result is a testament to Evelyn’s imagination and creativity. Inspired by books like Iggy Peck Architect and Rosie Revere Engineer, she was able to create through play. I was awarded the good fortune to collaborate with both young and experienced people on this project. Let me know if you want to work on something. I’m ready for the next collaboration.
