The task is to design visual enhancements for a quotation. I chose: “The creative adult is the child that survived.” by the writer Ursula K. Le Guin.

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/kmorgan-eportfolio/academics/courses/sample-course/visual-quote-project/

Mrs. Le Guin gets it right. Life beyond childhood is conducted primarily as a quest to define ourselves through a career or other advised, pragmatic, pursuits. That process depletes the child within us. Very young children rarely show enough creative talent to mark themselves as unmistakably exceptional, but I am convinced that childish play and childhood passions are the essence of our individuality. If we are lucky we find our path early and stay on it. If we are lucky we recover the ancient child and that nascent path, then go directly along it in search of work that completes us.

My illustrations focus on the child from whom the adult metamorphosed.

Illustration A. In this illustration, I’ve purposefully juxtaposed the words Adult and Child. The opposing temperament of these two words is echoed in the colors and lines of the type in each case. Child is rendered in variegated characters to which effects have been applied to evoke childish artwork and handwriting. The “L” in “child” is redrawn as a wax crayon. A blue balloon substitutes for the tittle above the letter “i”. The legs of the cap A in “Adult” represent the regimented pursuits and tone of adulthood—on the left as a pant falling over the shoe and sock of an adult man and on the right as a caricature of woman’s leg wearing red stilettos. I chose the plain attributes of Termina (sans) demibold font for the rest of the text to further emphasize this contrast. These elements are combined to convey the disconnect between staid adulthood and the unfettered expression of a child using crayons, chalk or chubby pencils to draw or practice their handwriting.

CONCEPT A FINAL

PDF CONCEPT A FINAL quote-a-dec-4-fixed

EARLIER VERSION CONCEPT A

Illustration B. spotlights the abandon of children at play. Is there a child who has ever encountered stairs, especially outdoors, who hasn’t enjoyed leaping down them despite the dire warnings of parents and other adults? Grownups rarely, if ever, succumb to such temptations. They likely worry about seeming childish or fear falling. Nevertheless, the exhilaration of flying through the air like this isn’t forgotten. Here, one of the children holds a pair of paintbrushes overhead as she jumps. The other launches her little body into space at the bottom with every expectation of a sound landing. The words of the quotation follow the leaping children diagonally from top left to bottom right and simulate the treads of the stairway.

CONCEPT B FINAL

PDF concept b FINAL quote-b-dec-4-fixed

EARLIER VERSION CONCEPT B

Illustration C. is a composition of two very different representations of a rose. The smaller flower, bottom right, is inked in a childish hand. The larger image positioned within the arc of the text is a more sophisticated and stylized take on the same rose. I’ve linked the two sketches by Ms. Guin’s words tracing a sinuous curve between both flowers The movement of the text line suggests the outline of a child’s head: forehead, crown and nape. There, close to the brain stem, the child’s drawing is cradled. The author’s name tapers toward the bottom right edge of the illustration. The line it sits on hints at the child’s shoulder.

CONCEPT C