Poster design for '08 contest

THE WHOLE STORY.

Once upon a time, a junior in high school was looking for an art school to attend upon graduation. The junior poked around the website of the Art Institutes, and when she happened upon a page showcasing the winners of an annual poster contest, her mind starting going in high gear. “Suppose I had entered this contest,” she mused, “what would my poster have looked like?”

The given theme that year had been Life is Better with Art in It. After running through and dismissing several banal symbols of artistic expression, she hit upon an idea roughly like the one you observe above. “It’s too bad I have no way of getting to Africa to set up that shot,” the hyper-realist lamented, and then turned her mind to other things. What did it matter, since the given theme surely wouldn’t come around again.

As the junior became a senior, her future plans solidified considerably. “I want to attend at an Art Institute,” she declared, and suddenly realized she owed it everyone to try for that scholarship offered by the annual poster contest. Navigating once again to the web page, she realized with a start that the given theme had not changed. “Again, too bad I can’t go to Africa.”
And yet… stubbornly convinced of the idea’s merit, she decided to try and realize the image anyway.

The senior arrived home on Christmas break and promptly got to work. She felt the Holy Spirit showing her one step at a time how it could be done. Two weeks later, the image was complete.

The senior returned to her boarding school and offered it to her graphic arts teacher for critique. She was happy to be able to perfect it further. Then, heart beating fast, she sent the image with its accompanying artistic statement to the Art Institute of Indianapolis.

“I chose to illustrate the concept using water as a symbol of life. When we approach those things that are our life source – water, food, clothing, shelter, and the rest, we have the option of meeting our physical needs in artistic ways that nourish our souls as well.

This is privilege that I especially value. I love the way that graphic design elevates our everyday, information-based lives by appealing to a deeper part of us, the part that is aesthetically stimulated.

This image was created with an understanding that the inverse is equally true: “Art is better with Life in it.” If the bucket is a representation of all artistic expression, then how much more appealing is it because it contains water, vital to sustaining human life?

This can be understood from a completely practical standpoint. The applied arts, of all the arts, could be said to contain the most life. As a commercial art, graphic design helps the economy; a good design may lead to a better-selling product. It is a means by which the need for beauty becomes a dependable way to make a living. That is truly refreshing.”

The senior had three months to abide before she would hear anything back from the Art Institute. She tried not to think to hard about the poster under the critical eyes of judges… after all, the whole thing was really God’s idea. She was quite convinced of that.

The senior went home on spring break again, conscious that the advertised date was creeping closer. Each day: “Perhaps the winner is being notified. Which would mean it isn’t me. What will I do then?”
She and her mother were returning from shopping together one chilly afternoon. As the car pulled up to the corner where their house stood, both women spied a paper taped up to the front door. An instant later, they screamed. For it was a homemade announcement, if you will, stating that the poster (the one you see above) had won 1st place at the local level.

Along with some award money, the win resulted in the poster being entered into the national competition with 40 other first-place winning posters from Art Institute schools… and 3 more months of waiting. The senior became very careful about her expectations. She felt she would win something, but that it probably would not be 1st place.

One Saturday morning in May, just before leaving on a field trip to England, the senior checked her e-mail on the dorm computer. The only piece of mail was an audio file sent without explanation from her father. As she opened it and listened, she realized it was a recording from her family’s answering machine. She grinned first at the “eavesdropping” her father had just facilitated – and then because she heard that her poster had been awarded 3rd place at the national level.

The senior is now a freshman again, attending the school into which she has already poured so much energy. She is especially happy because the ensuing drop in her tuition allowed her little brother to begin attending boarding school at the same time. She likes how God works with the willing for their good, and wants to keep working with Him.