My good friend and soon to be MFA graduate Jenn Kahn asked me to help her with a card to advertise and debut her upcoming showcase of artwork. Jenn and I go way back to high school AP art classes in 2002. She always had an intellectual and precise approach to her work. She is savvy, keen, and knows what she wants and understands that there is much more to modern art than craft, there is an understanding of culture, society, and sensory experiences; the ability to combine these elements into a transferable experience for the viewer. Always pushing the envelope on things dainty, feminine, delicate, and pastel I love listening to her perception of her art and its affect on your senses when you enter its environment; she doesn’t just want you to see something visually appealing she wants you to be swept away into a feeling – a time and a place you may know or will begin to know from her work.
For her card she wanted a clean look accentuating the figurines that are at the center of her current work. A strong typography that is elaborate, yet legible, sweet and “precious”. This card is a huge statement of her work and initiating that sensory experience she wants you to expose yourself to. We found the wonderful serif font Old Script that evokes those feelings described, elaborated the area with a soft glow and delicate line underneath. We juxtaposed the elaborate, fancy script with the clean dependable Helvetica Neue. We played around with the kerning and height allowing this delicate san-serif to stand strong against the elaborate serif.
The typography on this card is also going to be repeated on the entrance windows of her gallery. This clean look will stand strong and compliment her work. For the back of the card we went for a very simple one color. Repeated the developed typography and allowed the different variants of Helvetica Neue to write the details of the event. The back had to be flexible to be able to be mailed and handed out as a simple card.
After our session we were very pleased with the outcome; it was really great to think that we used to be in AP art sketching still lifes and counting down the days to college and now she is graduating with her MFA. I am so happy and excited for Jenn to be completing her degree and moving on to New York City. She is taking the plunge and I promise one day we will be bougie in Brooklyn.
Gainesvillians – come to this great event March 26th!!
