Elaine Benoit
Savannah College of Art and Design
Prof. Louis Baker
GRDS 201-01 Introduction to Graphic Design

Project 4: gods and goddesses of design: poster and gift wrap
Acrylic Paint

For this project I chose to make it inspired by the artist Maira Kalman. As an illustrator, her work is very distinctive of fun and whimsical characters. She had said once that her childhood was very much living in a daydream with this beautiful and innocent essence of not knowing what is going on, which is something she carries with her to this day. She has a certain appreciation or the world around her. The way that she looks at life is both very honest and ridiculous at the same time. A reporter described her to be “simultaneously down-to-earth and exquisitely transcendent, she reflects the optimism, pathos, and wonderful strangeness of the human existence in all its messy glory.” Having this appreciation of humanity, you can understand why she loves New York so much. She also talks a lot about how her mother’s very much incorrect interpretation of the United States map influenced her. Therefore, for my wrapping paper design, I decided to do various scenes of characters like hers on part of the map of Central Park and include some quotes by Maira to give it some typographic elements. 

I thought that if Maira were to walk through central park in one of her daydreams, what or who would she see or notice. In this map I included landmarks of Central Park to make the fact more apparent, but with each landmark I put a slight twist. For example, the giant Obelisk monument is a giant pencil in Maira’s daydream. This was to give a sense of her humor. Each of the quotes have to do with Maira’s opinion on life and specifically dreaming and living your dream. This piece was hand painted in acrylic paint to imitate her artistic style. 

The poster is inspired by and in the same style as the wrapping paper design and is a scene of Maira sitting on a park bench with her dog. She is absolutely in love with her dog and appreciates dogs so much generally that she even dedicated a book about them. The title is “A Walk in a Daydream with Maira Kalman”. I chose this title to sort of play on the phrase “a walk in the park”. I added illustrated bees to represent SCAD, where her lecture would be held, and to give a lighthearted feel. 

I am imagining that if she were to give a talk here at SCAD it might be specifically on being an artist. She might touch on how we might see things differently than other people; see things in a more creative and out of the ordinary sense. We can appreciate the small details of life, the weird and wonderful tendencies of humanity. She might point out that we get to be dreamers for a living and not only just live in our own daydream, but make other people’s dreams a reality as well.