Awards: Gold Student ADDY 2024, Belmont University Annual Student Exhibition 2024

Brief: Create an invitation and on-site collateral for an upscale gala in support of the Frist Art Museum featuring artist Kara Walker.

Concept: Incorporate Kara Walker’s silhouette pieces as die cuts.

Credits: Art from Harpers’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) and Gone: An Historical Romance of a Civil War as It Occurred b’tween the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart. 1994 Kara Walker

Design Choices: Kara Walker’s work explores race, gender, sexuality, and violence through silhouetted figures. Being such serious work, I wanted to incorporate her art without interfering with it’s powerful simplicity. I separated the silhouettes (the die cuts for the invitations and table numbers) from their backgrounds (the insides of the envelope and the backs of the printed materials) to where they could be reunited when placed together. The width variation and ornamentation of the type I chose for the logo compliments the detailed borders of the silhouettes. The body copy is kept simple and clean as to not distract from the work.