Making Waves
2010, 18" x 24", Poster design concept
Recently, the Chicago Public Library hosted its second annual poster contest to raise awareness of all the library has to offer residents of the Windy City, the City of Broad Shoulders, Second City, Chi-Town… the list goes on.
Of course, I had to participate. Particularly, because the Grand Prize was so alluring: Unlimited borrowing of all varieties of media (books, music, films, etc.) for one’s entire residency in the city. Can you imagine? Oh, and they’ll print a ton of these so you can show off to all your neighbors.
Poster detail, Gyotaku-inspired waves
This Chicago landscape features a sea of books that visually morph into Lake Michigan. The representation is inspired by the tradition of Ukiyo-e, Japanese woodblock printing that told stories of history, culture, and entertainment through landscape and theatrical scenes. The profile image of books represented as waves is additionally a reference to Gyotaku—a technique in which Japanese fishermen would record their daily catch by directly inking the bodies of fish and applying to paper.
The art of the poster has lost much of its significance in this country, and my digitally constructed reference to these artistic techniques is an attempt to connect today’s culture with a visual tradition of the past. In the Japanese prints, narratives were expressed through imagery, and the viewer would understand based on common knowledge of history and folklore. The Chicago Public Library’s poster competition called for entries highlighting “chipublib.org”—a collection of letters that asks the viewer to fill in the blanks based on context. This rhythmic wavy pattern of open books creates a “floating world” of its own, upon which the playful typography happily floats and bobs before an abstracted Chicago cityscape.
Poster detail, Chicago skyline
There will be both a judged winner and people’s choice winner in the contest. Voting is now closed on the People’s Choice Award, but you can view all contestants on the NotWhatYouThink Flickr page. The Grand Prize Winner and People’s Choice Award Winner will be announced on Thursday, June 3, 2010. So, if all goes well, maybe you’ll be seeing these in person at CTA stops around the city.
