A friend of mine, who is also interested in all things WPA, recently gave me a book, called The Dream and The Deal: The Federal Writer's Project 1935-1943, by Jerry Mangione, figuring I'd be interested in reading it.
Of course I was, since there are (still!) relatively few books on the subject of the WPA, and it was interesting reading a book by someone who was there at the time.
The book was first published in 1972, the edition my friend gave me was from 1982. The only problem with the book was the cover--text only, with a dull-as-dishwater color scheme (navy blue and tan), made it look like a really boring textbook.
So, as I am wont to do, I worked up my own cover for it, which you see above. It felt like my way to do a tribute to the book, and of course I'm always up for WPA-style graphics.
My original conception for the piece was for me to illustrate one person, sitting a 1930s-era typewriter, with the text around them. But soon after starting, I realized it would work better if we saw lots of people working at typewriters--the whole idea behind the Writer's Project, after all--and I thought it would ultimately work better just with photos from the period.
So while this isn't an illustration piece, I'm still proud of it, and I still think it would make a great cover for, say, a new edition of the book!
Of course I was, since there are (still!) relatively few books on the subject of the WPA, and it was interesting reading a book by someone who was there at the time.
The book was first published in 1972, the edition my friend gave me was from 1982. The only problem with the book was the cover--text only, with a dull-as-dishwater color scheme (navy blue and tan), made it look like a really boring textbook.
So, as I am wont to do, I worked up my own cover for it, which you see above. It felt like my way to do a tribute to the book, and of course I'm always up for WPA-style graphics.
My original conception for the piece was for me to illustrate one person, sitting a 1930s-era typewriter, with the text around them. But soon after starting, I realized it would work better if we saw lots of people working at typewriters--the whole idea behind the Writer's Project, after all--and I thought it would ultimately work better just with photos from the period.
So while this isn't an illustration piece, I'm still proud of it, and I still think it would make a great cover for, say, a new edition of the book!
1 comment:
Hey Rob,
I came across your rad illustration of Marisa Tomei from a Time Out New York interview last year and posted it to my blog this morning. I gave you credit and linked the image back to your blog. However, I noticed you have a stellar list of clients, which made me think: perhaps this talented dude won't be happy with me using his design ...
Let me know if you're cool with it. I make no money off the site. Other than my mother, I get about five hits a day. ;)
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