Sketchism

Monday was the big day. I presented my illustration, poster, and collateral along with my 4 teammates in front of a panel that included 2 deans and 2 professors. Before we were ready my teammate Cattia asked me if I was nervous.

“Nope. I just want to get this over with already.”
“Same here,” she replied.

Well it appears that all the weeks of slaving over this project were worth it. After a month and a half of sketching, redrawing, tight pencil renderings, color-comps, layouts, brainstorming, phone calls, emails, sighing, stretching, and wincing at back pains, we were told it was the best presentation they had seen to date. Now, I should probably explain how this whole presentation was structured. Picture The Apprentice, with less cameras, less Trump, and a lot more kind things to say about teammates. There were two teams: The Manhattan Project and Team Apple. Cattia and I were the art directors for Team Apple. The project was to create a poster for the Chrysler Building in New York City. The illustration had to be hand-made. No digital illustrations for this one.

The challenge was to create the best illustration, poster, and a collateral piece that would tie in the illustration to the product. The winning team would receive an extra-credit A for a semester that only had 3 (very time-consuming) projects. It’s an important A to have.

Well, I’m sad to say that my team didn’t win the competition. But, as the panel explained, we were very close. All the posters were amazing. What tipped the scale in the end was the craft-work in the collaterals of The Manhattan Project. Their products included t-shirts, shot glasses, playing cards, matches, and an ashtray. My team’s collaterals included a notebook, a travel chess set, a postcard set, a 3d frame of the poster, and a collection of wine bottles which incorporated one of the illustrations on each bottle.

What matters is that it’s over and that the panel was impressed.

And now for the exciting news. Today I had braces installed onto the top row of my mouth. I was glad to finally have it done after waiting quite a few years. The bad news is that I have to refrain from certain hard foods… for two years. Oh well. It’s a small price to pay for the straight teeth I’ve been dreaming about. Right now I can’t really chew anything because the pressure is extra hard on my mouth. So I treated myself to soup, pudding, and a milkshake today. I’d say it’s a good week so far.