Students and faculty will have the opportunity to showcase their artistic talents at the 3rd Annual Clemson Art Book Fair and Zine Fest Wednesday, April 15, from 1-5 p.m. in the Gunnin Architecture Library located in Lee Hall.
The event will feature books, zines, posters and other printed materials created by Clemson students. It is hosted by Clemson Visual Arts, the Gunnin Architecture Library and the Fine Arts Student Association.
One student’s design was selected to represent the event in promotional materials, through an assignment in graphic design courses taught by Drew Sisk, assistant professor of graphic design in the Department of Art. Savannah Hall, a visual arts major from Easley, created both static and animated images that are being used in marketing materials for the event featuring dandelions set against a background of a library check-out card.
“I was looking for inspiration in the Gunnin Library, and I noticed a library book checkout card in the front of the book I was looking at, and I thought the design was interesting,” said Hall. “I based the visual identity on the textures and type that I found on the card. This was the inspiration behind my theme of found objects. I repeated the image along with the other graphics and overlapped them, which supports my concept of displaying things that exist in multiples, which is what this event is intended to do.
“I also drew a parallel between dandelions and the printed material that would be presented at the show. Dandelions are characterized by their vigorous growth and consistent reproduction, and the same can be said for printed material like zines. The creation of the zine was meant to spread a message, idea, or story to the masses without requiring lots of funding, like a conventional magazine or journal,” she said.
Ann Holderfield, director of the Gunnin Library, along with Sisk, selected Hall’s design to represent this year’s event after seeing multimedia presentations from intermediate and graphic design students earlier this semester. Holderfield said the decision was difficult, because the quality of the work presented was so high.
“With Savannah’s design in particular, I was really impressed by the complexity of both the image and the concept. I appreciated the reference to a book that she found in the library. Her research began with a book. She includes images of the date due slip in the back of the book and the checkout card, along with traces of signatures of former students or employees of Clemson that have checked out the book,” said Holderfield. “This layered image references the history of technology in the library. We no longer sign our name in the back of books. We receive an email letting us know when the book is due and acknowledging that we have checked it out. Our borrowing agreement is conducted digitally and we no longer leave any trace of ourselves in the book. So to see this recognition of the history of a more personal connection with the checked-out book from the library was fascinating to me … It is hard to depict a book as a symbol in a design without making it look trite. I thought Savannah created a very elegant, poignant, and complex metaphor with the dandelion graphic.”
Hall plans on showcasing other work at the event, such as prints of a font project, zines, and linocut prints on clothing and other textiles.
Savannah Hall
Hall’s professor, Drew Sisk, said similar events are happening on campuses across the country, partly because of the prevalence of digital media. He said it gives people an opportunity to hold an artists’ work in their hands, as opposed to viewing it on a screen. It also gives students the opportunity to get their work in front of more people.
“It’s a nice way for students to share their work with the rest of the campus, and it gives them a way to test the waters and consider applying to participate in other regional or national fairs,” he said. “For my graphic design students in particular, making artists’ books and participating in events like these expose them to alternative ways of working alongside more traditional client-based practices.”
Hall is glad to have the opportunity to participate in the fair.
“This space is different than presenting things to an audience on social media because you get the chance to talk to someone in person about a project and explain the process and concept behind it,” she said. “You get the opportunity to look at your colleague and watch their face light up as they tell you about how much work and passion went into their idea. I think that it is also important to view artwork in person and not just on the internet because there is a magic that happens in the printing process that you can’t always see online.”