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| Copyright 2008 Travis Cohn / Speyedr Graphix and Illustration |
This is an illustrative logo/graphic I created for the Farmers' Market, here in Siler City. Founder and seller Joan Thompson approached me about the project a few years ago and about a year and many sketches, meetings, studies, and scratches later, this is what I came up with. The concept hopefully is self evident, and if not, is hopefully pretty well summed up by the tags lines we created to accompany the design in print: "from our fields to your table", or "we bring good food straight to your table".
I designed the piece for, and executed it in, Scratcher board, which is a masonite board, coated with a thin layer of white kaolin clay, and then another layer of black india ink, which you scratch through, to 'exhume' the white below it. And let me tell you, I was ready to scratch my eyes out before thing thing was through! I have never undertaken such an involved project in scratcher board before, and this is probably one of the tighter drawings I have ever undertaken period. But a few details aside (I need to move the pumpkin to the left, and several of the vegetable are out of proportion), I am generally pretty pleased with the overall delivery of the concept.
And it was actually a really fun project to do. I happened to be working for the Cencus Bureau at the time, and this work took me out into the surrounding farmlands a lot, (and intoduced me to several dairy and poultry farmers), which became a source for a lot of the imagery and inpiration for the project (though most of it is infact from my minds eye, save for a few vegetable still lifes, and a few googled reference images). Siler City has a strong and rich poultry tradition, which lasts to this day (though it is finally dwindling), so this is the reason that I chose to include the hen and the rooster in the design.
When creating a scene, it is always fun to see elements wander in, and find their places (roost?) in the composition. Hopefully these fowl earn their place on this farm by laying a few eggs- helping to tell a little bit of Siler City's story, agricultural, and otherwise.
Also, it was quite gratifying to get to bear witness to this scene taking shape before me, during the final lino-cutting phase. To watch this scene being progressively lit up, a scratch at a time, by the rays of an Xacto knife sun, was much akin to the experience of the awakening, glowing twilight hours depicted in the drawing.
The sun, cracked across the edge of the sky, breaks and oozes into the cool dark expanse of night, leaking in its light. A burner clicks, and soon all begins, to sizzle and hiss.
I would say my favorite part of this image is the clouds floating, boyantly, beneath the tents dark canopy. Somehow, this image really satisfies me. It was also fun to watch the sun exploding through the tree in the front yard, and through the barn's hay door, perhaps harkening back to a brief stint working on a cattle farm in college. The chicken and the pumpkin were a lot of fun too.
I would say my favorite part of this image is the clouds floating, boyantly, beneath the tents dark canopy. Somehow, this image really satisfies me. It was also fun to watch the sun exploding through the tree in the front yard, and through the barn's hay door, perhaps harkening back to a brief stint working on a cattle farm in college. The chicken and the pumpkin were a lot of fun too.
USE/S:
I hope the gang down at the farmers market is able to get a lot of milage out of this image (as, of course, they are a lot of its inspiration also). It is meant for a brochure, newspaper ads, and a couple of banners. Hopefully we can also get it printed on some black canvas tote bags some day (though I am afraid alot of the detail could be lost in a screen print, but thats ok).
Below is a digital version of the image that photographer Duane Hall had created for a newspaper ad. I had intentionally left the area below the table blank, so that the Farmer's Market could fill in time and date info as needed. While I would like to go in with Illustrator, and shift that darn pumpkin of mine over, so that the text could be better centered, I do like what Duane did with what he had, particularly the way he made the lettering at the bottom glow, reflecting what I was trying to achieve up top.
Hope you like it. Please let me know what you think!
Best, Travis
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| Copyright 2009 The Siler City Farmers' Market |
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